Two arrested as hundreds protest Teaneck Synagogue Israel real estate expo

• Published date: 14 March 2024
• Author: MICHAEL STARR
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The Teaneck Police department said on Monday that Letticia Freitas and Mahdy Suleimen were arrested for spraying passing cars with a red liquid as they passed the demonstration area. Freitas was charged with five counts each of bias intimidation, criminal mischief, simple assault, and harassment. Suleiman was charged with single counts of bias intimidation, criminal mischief, and harassment

The Bergen County Jewish Action Committee (BCJAC) claimed in a Monday statement that protesters also hurled objects at commuters and pedestrians.

BCJAC spokesman said that the My Home in Israel Real Estate informational program held at the Orthodox Jewish synagogue faced "a cynical attempt to target a religious institution under false pretenses as part of a coordinated and malicious campaign to harass Teaneck's Jewish community".

"These protestors knowingly misrepresented, and made utterly unfounded and inflammatory claims about, the event in an attempt to mask what was little more than the targeted harassment of a peaceful religious community by a violent mob," said Gross.

Protest joined by local JVP, CAIR chapters

Teaneck for Palestine organized the protest March against what they said on social media last Friday was the "immoral marketing of stolen Palestinian land."

"Let's make it known now that Palestinian land is NOT for sale; not to anyone, and certainly not to Zionists of Teaneck, New Jersey who are complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine," Teaneck for Palestine said on Instagram. "These illegal land grabs that are promoted here in our backyards are directly related to and responsible for the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians at the hands of these fascist settlers."

The call to action was joined by Jewish Voice for Peace North NJ. Council on American-Islamic Relations NJ called for the federal investigation of the sale of land at the synagogue last Monday. American Muslims for Palestine NJ told its supporters on Instagram to call the NJ Attorney-General and tell them that the land sale violated not only international law, but NJ anti-discrimination laws by not allowing some people to attend the event.

Gross said that the demonstration was mostly attended by non-Teaneck residents "trying to...