Teaneck, New Jersey looked a little like the West Bank on Sunday. Whose fault it is depends on who you ask. But one thing is clear. It started at a real estate fair.
A few weeks ago, a group called My Home in Israel Real Estate announced plans To hold a series of real estate fairs to encourage Americans to buy real estate in Israel and the West Bank, where the Israeli government has confiscated land from Palestinians. Rich Siegel, a Jewish activist for Palestinian rights, pledged to organize a protest against My Home in Israel at a Teaneck Township Council meeting.
My Home in Israel rented the local Keter Torah synagogue for the Teaneck exhibition. Fearing the worst, Teaneck officials called in police from around Bergen County and closed roads around the synagogue. On the day of the event, a large police presence separated protesters carrying Palestinian flags from counter-demonstrators carrying Israeli flags.
Although protest organizers focused on a real estate fair, the protests conveyed Israeli and Palestinian grievances much more broadly and were accompanied by many brutal acts on both sides. At one point, pro-Israel protesters chanted “fuck you mom” in Arabic, while pro-Palestinian protesters chanted “son of a bitch” in Hebrew.
Two people were arrested for allegedly spraying an unknown liquid on people passing by a real estate fair, according to a statement posted on Facebook by the Teaneck Police Department.
Teaneck, a New York City suburb, is known for its diversity. (First time in New Jersey desegregate schools.) And because of its large immigrant community, Teaneck has often been involved in foreign policy issues. In 2022, this village heated debate After the local Democratic branch voted to condemn Hindu nationalism.
But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the most contentious issue in Teaneck politics, with each round of debate seemingly escalating from the previous one. In 2021, the Israeli flag-raising ceremony sparked low-level protests. barely made Local news. This was a far cry from Sunday's noisy clash.
Earlier this year, the federal government intervened in the Israel-Palestine debate in Teaneck. After local high school students held a pro-Palestinian rally, town council members pushed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D).–new jersey) condemns “anti-Semitism and anti-Israel protests during school hours.” (me Covered the controversy for intercept.) At Gottheimer's urging, the Department of Education Title VI Investigation In my teens.
This argument supposedly led to shit throwing, both metaphorically and literally. Adam Weissman, a protest organizer who is Jewish and supports the Palestinian cause, claimed that unknown vandals “repeatedly” threw bags of excrement onto the lawns of pro-Palestinian activists. Last year, after a school board member was accused of censoring her pro-Israel voice, she said this to one of her critics:pencil dick“On camera.
Siegel drew the attention of protesters to a real estate fair on February 27th. city council meeting. that pointed out My House in Israel was advertising real estate in the West Bank. Siegel argued that because Israel took the land through military conquest, selling such property would violate international law.
website for my homeland israel The tour says it is “focused” on several Israeli cities and three settlements in the West Bank: Neve Daniel, Efrat and Ma'ale Adumim. Event organizer Gidon Katz said: NorthJersey.com To call a place “stolen land” is to deny the existence of the State of Israel.
All three West Bank settlements were built. at least partially on land Israeli government confiscation from Palestine farmer or shepherds After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967. Last month, the U.S. State Department said the settlements illegal land occupation. Last week, the Israeli military announced further attacks. 4 square kilometers Outside Ma'ale Adumim becomes “state land.”
Siegel argued that the war in Gaza, which has left Teaneck residents “deep in mourning,” made it a particularly bad time to hold the exhibition.
“This real estate event will only fan the flames,” he said. “If we keep going, there will be protests. I know there will be protests because I will be organizing them. The turnout will be very high.”
Video of Siegel's speech reposted on the Instagram page Teaneck for Palestine It went viral. Amazon union leader Chris Smalls Shared a video Siegel and News Channels AJ+ ran the interview itself With Siegel. It will truly be a protest in which many people will participate.
On the day of the real estate fair, security politely turned me away at the door, saying the news media was not allowed inside. So instead, I spoke to pro-Israel counterprotesters who had gathered along the protest's planned route.
They wanted to share the general sentiment about the conflict – that Israel wants peace and that the Palestinian cause is not violent – but were much more coy about advocating for the sale of real estate. When I pressed them on the issue, some pro-Israel protesters argued that the government had the right to take land by force.
“There was a war and they [Palestinians] “I’m sorry, but that means the world,” said a man named Jacob, who declined to give his last name.
A woman named Julie, who did not give her last name, said she supported a two-state solution, which would mean Palestinians could have an independent nation-state alongside Israel. But she said Palestinian land in the West Bank “is disputed property. “It does not belong to Palestine,” she insisted.
When I asked her about specific land confiscations, Julie called her friend Dave and told him that the West Bank “is ours. It's biblical land. Go read your Bible.” She said a third woman with him added: “War happens everywhere. Borders are always changing.” She then claimed to have many “Arab friends.”
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protesters were gathering at the Teaneck Armory, a public park 1.4 miles (2.2 km) from the synagogue. Alice Golim of the Jewish Voice for Peace, which helped organize the protest, held a banner that read “Palestine is not for sale” in Hebrew. “It is morally shameful to sell land in occupied territories,” she said.
Bergen County Jewish Action Committee President Emma Horowitz previously said: NorthJersey.com “The idea of protesting a synagogue would be shocking to all of us.” When I asked Golim, he said it was “awkward” for a real estate fair to be held in a chapel.
In addition to opposing the sale of Palestinian land, Golim wanted to hear from the Israeli government “there will be no business as usual until they stop what they are doing in Gaza, release the hostages and allow humanitarian aid” .
Some supporters had a harder anti-Israel message. “We don’t want two states, we want 48 states,” the protesters chanted, referring to the land that became Israel after the 1948 war of independence. A woman wearing a Palestinian scarf held a banner that read: “From the river to the sea, there will be no Israelis.” She refused to answer my questions.
Weissman said the signs were not part of an officially sanctioned protest. But he began to defend that message without prompting. “I don’t think any Palestinian would believe that the Jews should be eliminated from Palestine,” he said. “If you talk to Palestinian Jews who are critical of Israel, they don’t call themselves Israelis, they call themselves Palestinian Jews.”
He cited the example of Neturei Karta, a Jewish group that rejects the state of Israel for fundamentalist religious reasons. Many members live in Jerusalem, waving the palestinian flag. Their faith is considered fringe both in Israel and in the Jewish diaspora.
As the protest moved from the armory toward the real estate fair, a long line of police cars separated protesters and counter-demonstrators. Pro-Palestinian protest organizers, wearing reflective vests, intervened several times to prevent angry protesters from moving over to the pro-Israel side.
Both sides marched past the police line for 30 minutes, taunting each other. One pro-Palestinian protester held a sign that read, “There's a lot of ground in hell.” A group of pro-Israel counter-protesters chanted “human shields,” while a group of protesters held up photos of fallen Palestinian children.
At some points, the protests looked like they would lead to clashes with local residents back home.
As a local man began filming the protest from his home, a man wearing a Palestinian flag approached his driveway and started yelling, “Get out, you bitch!” Organizers blamed the protesters. “Let them film,” Weissman said. “What do we have to hide?”
The same scene was later repeated on the other side. A local shouted “Liberate Palestine” from her window, and a group of counter-protesters wearing Israeli flags entered her lawn. “What for free? Why don’t you come out!” one of them shouted. After a few seconds they clearly got bored and left.
In the end, that was the difference between Teaneck and the West Bank. Despite all the strong feelings and personal connections Teaneck residents had with the area, everyone involved had the choice to leave.