MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: The Manhattan subway man who punched a Jewish woman in the face has been arrested and booked by the NYPD.
On Tuesday, October 24, Christopher D’Aguiar made his appearance in court and was charged with a hate crime, as per authorities.
Another anti-semitic attack in New York
The 28-year-old attacked the woman inside the 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue station on October 14 and when she asked him the reason for hitting her, Christopher replied “you are Jewish", as per the police report.
The 29-year-old suffered minor injuries while Christopher is being prosecuted under hate crime assault, aggravated harassment, assault and harassment.
The hate crime in the region has surged in the recent times, across New York. As per stats, almost 60% of the incidents were targeted against the Jewish community amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Joseph Kenny, NYPD Chief of Detectives, informed during a press conference on Tuesday, October 24, that out of these hate crimes, at least 51 were reported between October 9 and 30 were against people from the Jewish community.
On the other hand, only six anti-Jewish incidents took place during the same period in 2022.
60% of hate crime reported were against Jewish community
According to Kenny, these attacks do not seem to have escalated from either pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the city, as per New York Post.
“Some of the attacks occurred when random people just happen to cross paths on the subway. Or on a bus. We don’t see anything that’s really planned,” he said.
“Protests obviously are planned events. We haven’t seen any sort of hate crime attached to a protest,” he added.
In an unrelated story, a Columbia University professor called the Hamas attack ‘awesome’ and is now facing backlash over his comments. Joseph Massad, in his article for Electronic Intifada, described the attacks as "astonishing," "astounding," "awesome," and "incredible."
He explained the actions of the Palestinian militants and the takeover of Israeli "settler-colonies," viewing it as a significant blow to Israeli colonists' confidence in their military's ability to protect them, reports MEAWW.
“The sight of the Palestinian resistance fighters storming Israeli checkpoints separating Gaza from Israel was astounding,” wrote Massad.
“Perhaps the major achievement of the resistance in the temporary takeover of these settler-colonies is the death blow to any confidence that Israeli colonists had in their military and its ability to protect them," Massad added.
