Driver who tried to run-over pro-Palestine protesters in New York arrested

Students and pro-Palestinian supporters hold a rally at New York University (NYU) campus, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., May 3, 2024. (Photo/REUTERS/Stephani Spindel)

Three people have been arrested after a driver hit a pro-Palestinian protester on a Manhattan street Tuesday.

New York Police Detective Melissa Delacruz said Tuesday's incident happened around 8:45 am [local time] near the intersection of 72nd Street and Park Avenue on the Upper East Side.

About 25 protesters had been wrapping up a demonstration outside a building and were walking away when two of them got into an argument with a driver. The driver then struck a 55-year-old protester with his vehicle.

The demonstrator was treated at a hospital for minor injuries. The motorist, the demonstrator and another demonstrator were taken into custody, Delacruz said.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department told The Daily Beast that the driver was 57-year-old Rabbi Reuven Kahane.

The spokesperson informed the news outlet that Kahane is charged with second-degree assault, a designation in the New York Penal Code reserved for assaults where the perpetrator intends to cause serious injury and inflicts physical harm on the victim. This offense entails a maximum potential sentence of 7 years imprisonment.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest [CUAD] — the student group that organised a protest sit-in on campus which sparked similar demonstrations at other colleges across the US — said anti-war protestors "were attacked on the crosswalk" by an "Upper East Side Zionist."

According to CUAD, the individual approached the demonstrators, who were peacefully urging Columbia to divest from companies collaborating with Israel and advocating for the US government to cease its support for the Israel army. [Kahane] requested a flyer before seizing a protester by the arm.

He then "circled the block to drive into our peaceful demonstration," striking one person who was "arrested and handcuffed to the bed while in the hospital," CUAD added.

The demonstration was one of three protests on Tuesday morning in front of the homes of university trustees, according to members of CUAD.

Elsewhere pro-Palestinian student protesters at MIT breached police fencing to access an encampment, linking arms around tents on campus. They blocked a local thoroughfare while demanding an end to the violence in Gaza. This comes as Columbia University canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony amid ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstrations across America's top universities.

Since April 18, just over 2,600 students and faculty, protests against Israel's brutal war in Gaza, have been arrested in what has been dubbed as "Student Spring" on more than 50 campuses in the US.

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Source: TRT