Local Synagogue holds Discriminatory Sale of Homes to Expand Occupation

A demonstration took place Monday, November 4 outside Young Israel of Staten Island in Willowbrook, as an event inside promoted the sale of homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Demonstrators gathered across from the synagogue along Forest Hill Road with chants including While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping to express their outrage at the attempt to enlist Jews from Staten Island and other local communities as accomplices in expanding Israel’s settler-occupation of Palestinians. "As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, I have been heartbroken to see Israel do to Palestinians exactly what was done to my family in Europe - steal their land, take their homes, destroy their livelihood, herd them into camps, and during this last year commit Genocide against them," said Susan Lob of Tompkinsville. Lob continues, "I cannot stand by and let this happen. 'Never Again' means never again to anyone.  I am especially outraged that a Synagogue on Staten Island would sponsor the sale of this stolen land." West Bank settlements are widely deemed illegal under international law and continue in contravention of the International Court of Justice’s recent Advisory Opinion.

The sale at the Orthodox Synagogue was convened by real estate brokerage My Israel Home, whose blog posts delight that the current genocide "is truly a national effort, bringing out the best in our rabbinic leadership, soldiers and civilians." Attendance to the home sale was open only to persons of the Jewish faith. NorthJersey.com reports that legal complaints against the same brokerage have been filed with attorneys general and real estate licensing authorities in New York and New Jersey for previously holding discriminatory sales of real estate that exclude all persons not of Jewish descent, contrary to local, state, and federal housing discrimination laws. Young Israel of Staten Island, and My Israel Home did not respond to our request to dispute the demonstrators' allegations. The New York City Commission on Human Rights, which enforces local Human Rights Law related to housing discrimination did not respond to our request for comment on the exclusionary sale.

Attendees of the discriminatory sale, and their supporters gathered out front of the synagogue to jeer and intimidate community members in opposition to the sale. "It was extremely shocking and sad how outwardly racist they were being," said Palestinian-American Roxanne Mustafa whose family is from the West Bank. Supporters' comments ranged from the Anti-Arab/Anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, as well as a common conflation that opposition to an exclusionary ideology - Zionism - is opposition to Judaism. Mustafa continues, "I felt like I was at a Trump rally. I saw signs that said 'Jews for Trump' and 'Trump 2024'. They were taunting us like we were at a Superbowl." One sign reading Free Beepers Inquire Within hung on the synagogue’s entrance, intimating to Israel’s exploding pagers simultaneously across Lebanon on September 17, resulting in the death of at least 12, including two children and two health workers, and injuring over 2,800. While local corporate media heaped praise upon Israel for its ‘audacious plot’ which harmed Lebanese indiscriminately, former CIA director Leon Panetta appropriately labeled it a form of terrorism. “I don’t think there’s any question that [the pager attack was] a form of terrorism,” Panetta said on CBS News Sunday morning.

@rockmustrock Zionist are looking more and more like depraved fascists. #statenisland ♬ Wake Up - Llunr

Genna Goldsobel of Sunnyside joined the demonstration because she is, "exhausted by how our Jewish identity is often used to justify the actions of the Israeli government. I am tired of our collective historical trauma being leveraged over the past 75 years as a justification for violence and oppression. Our trauma is real, and it’s valid — but we cannot allow it to be used to legitimize genocide. We can be Jewish without being bound to a land that was taken from others. Our faith is about justice, compassion, and spiritual connection, not political domination." Tamer Mahmoud of St. George joined the demonstration with feelings of, "outrage and disgust over the fact that these illegal land sales are taking place - land that never belonged to them but to Palestinians."

Members of Bay Ridge Solidarity, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Staten Island 4 Palestine, PAL-Awda, and Mamas 4 A Free Palestine demonstrated the sale. Police detained a teen boy for starting a fire in a public area after immolating a design meant to resemble the flag of Israel. The burning of the United States flag has been upheld repeatedly as symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment by the US Supreme Court, noting society's outrage alone is not justification for suppressing free speech. The NYPD, when contacted for comment, indicated no one was arrested but three individuals at the demonstration were issued summonses, and released.

Young Israel of Staten Island Synagogue also caused a neighborhood stir in 2019, after quietly installing PVC pipes to neighborhood utility poles without approval from Con Edison, Verizon, or the Transportation Department. The pipes were meant to create an eruv, a symbolic fence that figuratively extends the boundaries of Jewish households allowing activities in public on the sabbath. Many were later taken down.