Police: Man who urged ‘Zionists’ to get off NYC subway faces criminal charge
NEW YORK — A masked pro-Palestinian protester recorded terrorizing a crowded Manhattan subway train by screaming “Raise your hand if you’re a Zionist!” surrendered to police, officials said.
After seeing multiple wanted posters seeking his apprehension, Anas Saleh, 24, surrendered to NYPD transit police Wednesday at the Canal Street station with a lawyer in tow.
He was charged with attempted coercion, a misdemeanor, and given a desk appearance ticket. He’s expected to answer the charges in Manhattan Criminal Court in a few weeks.
His face covered with a black and white headscarf, Saleh stepped on a crowded subway train at the 14th St.-Union Square station on June 10 and started chanting, “Raise your hand if you’re a Zionist! This is your chance to get out!”
When no one responded, Saleh said, “Ok, no Zionists. We’re good!” before stepping off the train.
The train was held in the station as police cleared protesters from the platform.
Saleh was part of a protest in Union Square where footage posted to social media shows a small group of demonstrators holding up a flag saying, “Long live October 7th.”
Protesters then flooded into the subway and rode down to Wall Street, where they staged a larger action outside the Nova Exhibition, a memorial created to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on a music festival in southern Israel.
At the Wall Street protest, footage shows a protester waving a flag with Hamas’ logo on it and another with the emblem of Hezbollah, a Lebanese group labeled a terrorist organization by the United States. Someone else is seen holding a sign saying Zionists are “not human.”
The next day Mayor Eric Adams joined relatives of the victims of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack to condemn the protesters, calling their actions “despicable.”
“Hamas is a terrorist organization,” Adams said. “Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. … Is this what New York represents? I say no.”
The word “Zionist” means someone who supports Israel and believes in the creation of a Jewish state, but during the many protests over the Hamas war in the city since Oct. 7 some activists have been equating the term with simply being Jewish.
