Pro-Palestine group protests outside Israeli real estate event in New York

About 100 pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered outside a New York synagogue for the second time in six months to demonstrate against an Israeli real estate event featuring properties for sale in the occupied West Bank.

Counterprotesters were also present outside the venue on Tuesday evening as scuffles broke out between the opposing groups. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators also clashed with police after trying to bypass security barriers and move closer to the synagogue.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the real estate event. A spokesperson for Mamdani told The Intercept that some of the properties being marketed were "illegal under international law and deeply tied to the ongoing displacement of Palestinians".

The demonstration was organised by Pal-Awda NY, which staged a similar protest outside the same synagogue during an Israeli real estate event in November.

Since then, the New York City Council has passed legislation restricting demonstrations near religious institutions. Under the new rules, police are required to publish plans establishing buffer zones during protests outside places of worship.

The event in New York, formally known as The Great Israeli Real Estate Event, is held in the United States and Canada with the aim of helping foreign buyers buy property in Israel and relocate there.

Under international law, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal.

While US administrations have condemned the expansions of such settlements, which are seen as a major impediment to a future Palestinian state, they have rarely taken concrete action against Israel's government.

In a major shift in 2019, US President Donald Trump said Washington no longer considers Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to be illegal under international law.

More recently, Trump has opposed outright Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, which rights groups say is being pursued via increased settlement construction and a slate of permissive Israeli laws.

However, the US president has not announced any punitive actions against Israel. Washington continues to provide billions of dollars in military aid and weapons sales.

Real estate expos that sell land in the occupied West Bank have been regular flash points in the US.

An Intercept reporter who attended Tuesday's event said the expo's website referenced Gush Etzion, a cluster of settlements southeast of Jerusalem. One company at the event displayed properties in the settlements of Kfar Eldad and Karnei Shomron, among others, according to the reporter.

Beyond the settlements being in violation of international law, activists have in the past charged that organisers of the events run afoul of US domestic law.

Rights groups have long maintained that Israeli settlements effectively bar or severely limit non-Jewish residents, making the sale of properties inherently discriminatory.

On top of that, activists have accused the groups running the real estate expos of religiously screening who they allow into the events.

"Not only is the refusal to sell property to anyone based on their race or national origin unlawful, the properties involved in these sales are built on stolen Palestinian land," the ADC, an Arab-American organisation, said in a statement in 2024 as it lodged a complaint US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) against the expos.

That year, the New Jersey Civil Rights Division reportedly questioned the organisers of an expo in West Orange, New Jersey after attendees said they were asked to provide detailed information on their religious affiliation, including the synagogue they attend and the name of their rabbi.

There were no specific, public allegations of such screenings by the organisers of the Great Israeli Real Estate Event on Tuesday. A media contact for the organisers was not immediately available, although their website maintained the expos are "private, invitation-only events".

During Tuesday's expo, at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan's Upper East Side, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) accused organisers of intentionally holding the event at a religious site.

In a post on X, the group said the move gives the appearance of the protests being anti-Jewish, as opposed to being against the sale of properties on occupied land.

JVP said the event is "racist, exclusionary, and perpetuates the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians".

"Yet again, these events are attempting to cynically shield themselves from protest by holding their sales at a synagogue," the group said. "No one should enable the sale of stolen land, let alone a religious institution."

Several local lawmakers condemned the pro-Palestine protesters, including state assemblyman Micah Lasher, who said their demonstrations were "intended to create fear in the hearts of Jewish New Yorkers and stigmatise our community".