Anti-Israel protester indicted for hate crime for allegedly threatening Jewish man on subway

(New York Jewish Week) — New York prosecutors indicted a man for an antisemitic hate crime that allegedly occurred around the time of controversial protests against an exhibit on the October 7, 2023, Nova music festival massacre.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday that Christopher Husary, 36, had been indicted for attempted coercion as a hate crime and aggravated harassment. 

Bragg’s office said Husary’s alleged victim, a 35-year-old Jewish man, boarded a subway at Fulton St. station in lower Manhattan on the evening of June 10 and saw Husary drawing an inverted red triangle, a Hamas symbol, on a subway door. 

The Jewish man then allegedly used his cell phone to photograph Husary, who then approached the man, who was wearing a kippah, and demanded he delete the photo. 

According to Bragg’s office, Husary berated and threatened the Jewish man, calling him a “Zionist” and saying, “You’re not a real Jew.” He then added, “We’ll find you and there will be consequences.”

'Raise your hand if you're a Zionist'

The victim reported the incident to police two weeks later, on June 22, Bragg’s office said. The same day, the New York Post published an article identifying Husary as a resident of a wealthy San Francisco suburb with a history of legal trouble. Soon afterward, the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force launched an investigation into the incident.

The incident occurred around the time that protesters gathered outside a Lower Manhattan exhibit commemorating the victims of Hamas’ massacre at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, where more than 360 people were killed. 

The protest, led by the hardline activist group Within Our Lifetime, was widely decried as antisemitic by government officials and Jewish leaders.

Protesters gathered in Union Square before taking the subway to the exhibit. A man appearing to match Husary’s description, and wearing a Hezbollah shirt, was at the Union Square protest. The New York Post report similarly said Husary wore a mask and a Hezbollah shirt at the protest.

In a separate incident on the same day, a protester in a crowded subway car in the same area allegedly demanded that “Zionists” identify themselves. Anas Saleh, 24, was arrested weeks later and charged with attempted coercion in the third degree for the incident. 

Widely circulated footage showed a man matching Saleh’s description shouting, “Raise your hand if you’re a Zionist” on a packed subway car.

“This is your chance to get out,” the man shouted. The call was repeated by other activists on the train, many of whom were wearing keffiyehs, or Palestinian scarves frequently worn by activists, that covered their faces.

Antisemitic hate crimes have surged in New York City in the past year.

Prosecutors are pursuing hate crimes charges in a number of high-profile cases, including in an indictment announced this week against activists who allegedly sprayed Hamas triangles on the home of the Brooklyn Museum’s Jewish director. That incident was also tied to a campaign led by Within Our Lifetime.