Later tonight, the Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side is scheduled to host an event promoting the sale of land in Israel, prompting an expected protest by organizations who say the event will involve the sale of stolen Palestinian land. The anticipated showdown between land-sale participants, protesters, and, almost certainly, counter-protesters, will be the first such event since the City Council passed controversial legislation restricting protest activities in close proximity to houses of worship.
That new law has not yet gone into effect, and in any case, the NYPD is on record stating that in its final, watered-down form, it won't make a meaningful change in how the department polices protests at events like this.
The event's website advertises an opportunity to "explore the best Anglo neighborhoods to find your dream home," but doesn't explicitly state that land is being sold. Instead, it invites registrants to indicate which areas they're interested in buying land in. Among the options listed is Gush Etzion, a cluster of settlements in an area of the West Bank illegally expropriated by Israel in 2014.
The office of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who opposed the buffer zone legislation but declined to veto it, told Hell Gate the mayor opposes this evening's event. "Mayor Mamdani is deeply opposed to the real estate expo this evening that includes the promotion of the sale of land in settlements in the Occupied West Bank," mayoral spokesperson Sam Raskin told Hell Gate. "These settlements are illegal under international law and deeply tied to the ongoing displacement of Palestinians."
Raskin added, "Our administration has also been clear that we are committed to ensuring safe entry and exit from any house of worship, and that such access never be in question while all protesters are able to exercise their First Amendment rights."
"They're soliciting interest in illegally stolen land," said Shraddha Joshi, a member of PAL-Awda of New York and New Jersey, a group organizing a protest of this evening's events. "We are going to be outside because we are protesting illegal violence, the violation of human life and international law."
Council Speaker Julie Menin, the driving force behind the council's legislation, issued a statement Tuesday acknowledging the situation: "As the City Council made clear in passing our safe access legislation with overwhelming support, safe access to the building should be ensured while fully protecting the right to peaceful protest."
In her state of the state address this year, Governor Kathy Hochul decried earlier protests of land sale events at New York City synagogues. "Targeting a Jewish community this way is antisemitism," she said.
That framing is altogether wrong , said Sophie Ellman-Golan of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
"There are real reasons to oppose events like this that have nothing to do with antisemitism," Ellman-Golan said. "It's pretty distressing to see synagogues—sacred places where Jews gather to pray or be in community—used for purposes like the sale of stolen land in illegal settlements."
The Park East Synagogue did not respond to a request for comment.
Events like this evening's are profoundly divisive and counterproductive, Ellman-Golan told Hell Gate. "Inevitably, people are going to protest this, and the response is going to disingenuously frame this as antisemitic," she said. "It creates a circus that now will dictate a news cycle, driving resources and attention that create moments of heightened tension and division. As Jews, we don't want to see our houses of worship used like this, and we don't want to see these manufactured moments that give rise to incredible tensions within our city."