'Slap on wrist' for anti-Israel protester who harrassed 'Zionists' on NYC subway

(JNS) — Jewish groups have expressed outrage after a man was sentenced on Wednesday to community service for hassling New York City subway riders last summer.

“A mere four hours of community service and an anti-bias course for blatant antisemitic harassment? This is not justice—it’s a disgrace,” Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, a grassroots watchdog organization, told The New York Post.

“Anas Saleh’s threats against fellow passengers on the NYC subway warranted real consequences, yet he walks away with a slap on the wrist. This weak response sends a dangerous message: antisemitism is tolerated,” she said. 

“We demand accountability, not appeasement,” Rez added.

Anas Saleh, 24, from Staten Island, will have a disorderly conduct charge dropped if he completes community service at a Jewish organization and attends an anti-bias course, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday, according to The Post.

On June 10, 2024, Saleh, along with a group of masked anti-Israel activists, jumped onto a subway car at the Union Square Station. 

Saleh shouted “Raise your hand if you’re a Zionist,” and then, “This is your chance to get out,” according to a video that circulated on social media. 

A photo of Saleh, whose identity was not yet known, was posted online a little more than a week later by the New York Police Department’s chief of transit asking for anyone to report information about him.

Saleh had faced coercion and attempted coercion charges, but those were dismissed by a judge because of “facial insufficiency,” prosecutors said in court. 

Saleh would have faced up to a year in prison if he’d been convicted on the coercion charge, according to The Post.

The Manhattan DA’s office then gave Saleh the chance to remove the final charge after “considering the defendant’s lack of a criminal history” and speaking with a complaining witness, the Post reported. 

Prosecutors also said Saleh had completed “a program mandated by his employer.”

The Community Security Initiative, a program formed to protect Jewish communities and institutions in the New York City metro area, called for the state’s hate crime laws to be beefed up. 

“We are deeply concerned that New York’s current hate crime laws do not classify Mr. Saleh’s actions as a hate crime. His conduct was not merely an exercise of constitutionally protected free speech,” the group said in a statement to The Post.

“He deliberately used the term ‘Zionist’ in the same way that haters use other prosecutable words of hate. We call on the New York State Legislature to update existing laws to accurately reflect the hate involved in such cases and ensure that perpetrators face appropriate consequences,” the statement said.

Mayor Eric Adams also condemned the incident at the time: “Threatening New Yorkers based on their beliefs is not only vile, it’s illegal and will not be tolerated. Let this be a lesson to all those who think they can act illegally and then hide: The NYPD will find you and charge you in accordance with the law,” 

Saleh will be performing community service at the Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, a pro-gay Jewish group.