In an incident during the March 10 protest near Congregation Keter Torah, a man carrying an Israeli flag was, according to witnesses, assaulted and the flag taken away from him. The flag was then ripped almost in two and then thrown into the street, where it lay for several hours and was driven over repeatedly. Council Member Hillary Goldberg was able to retrieve it hours later.

The man told passersby he was not Jewish and did not wish to file a police report.

According to another eyewitness report: “The protesters cheered every time a car came and ran over the flag. The man was very upset that he was attacked on his block for walking with the Israeli flag.”

“I wasn’t sure what decade I was living in. A mass crowd was hatefully protesting,” said Goldberg. “I watched a man get assaulted while carrying an Israeli flag. Hours later, I saw that same flag in the middle of New Bridge Road being driven over by a caravan of cars. I wasn’t leaving it. I was able to rescue what was left of it.”

According to Avi Berliner, in a letter to the editor this week: “I saw the mob grab a man and the flag of the State of Israel he was carrying, as he was walking on the sidewalk while they stood in the street, entitled to the same public space for freedom of expression. I saw the police have to go to pull him out. I saw an Israeli flag, ripped in half and thrown in the street to be driven over. I also saw when the police would not go to pick it up at the repeated requests of citizens and a member of council.”

“I watched our police get verbally abused,” said Goldberg. “I watched water bottles get thrown on cars as they drove by. I watched people, from young children to old men, calling for both our destruction and Israel’s. This was antisemitism. All of it. This was not a peaceful protest. This was a hateful protest. A neighbor described it as feeling like it was a pogrom.”