New York police arrested Noora Shalash, 39, of Kentucky, following an antisemitic attack that occurred in an office building in Manhattan against an ultra-Orthodox man who was passing by. She also made anti-Jewish remarks, including "F**k the Jews." A video documenting the anti-Semitic incident went viral and received millions of views on social media. Following the publication of the video, the woman was arrested and will soon be charged. Watch a clip of the incident:
Antisemitic tirade in a New York City office building by Noora Shalash
(Video: X platform of StopAntisemitism)
The New York Post reported that the incident took place in the lobby of a Manhattan office building, where Shalash shouted antisemitic remarks at an ultra-Orthodox man, hit him in the head and kicked him. Witnesses filmed the attack, in which Shalash is seen approaching the victim, hurling racial slurs at him and then physically attacking him.
"As I got closer, I heard the word ‘Jew’ being thrown around, and ‘genocide’ and ‘Israel’ and ‘Palestine,’ and I just knew immediately," Seth Bell, one of the victims of Shalash's verbal abuse, who filmed the video, told the New York Post in an interview. "She was equating some random Jewish guy with what was going on in the Middle East, which is classic antisemitism."
Among the epithets that Shalash said were: “F–k the Jews, I love Jesus…I demand Jihad! I want ISIS to kill all of you! I am conspiring with Hamas, Palestinian Jihad and with ISIS, I am conspiring with them!”
Shalash, of Lexington, Kentucky, has been charged with aggravated harassment, and a second-degree hate crime following the incident. Police said she was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
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Noora Shalash, of Lexington, Kentucky, has been charged with aggravated harassment, and a second-degree hate crime following the incident
(Photo: Screenshot from video on X)
The incident has sparked widespread reactions in the city, especially in light of the sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in the United States, especially since the deadly terrorist attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7.
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Shalash was initially reported to hold an official position with the Kentucky chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), but the organization said she has not been connected to the organization for the last five years.
The organization said in a post on the X platform, addressed to the Stop Antisemitism movement, which exposing individuals involved in antisemitic speech and actions: "We condemn and reject the antisemitic comments in the video, just as we condemn and reject the anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim hate you regularly spout. Racism is wrong, no matter the source or the target."