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Son of late Holocaust survivor claims NYPD made him remove Israeli flag at pro-Palestinian Manhattan rally
A video shows Elisha Weisel arguing with an anti-Israel protestor when an NYPD officer intervenes
The son of a famous late Holocaust survivor has claimed that police forced him to put away his Israeli flag while he was confronting pro-Palestinian demonstrator during a rally in Penn Station on Monday, December 18. 51-year-old Elisha Weisel, the son of late Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, took to X to share a video of himself draped in the flag. He is seen arguing with the protestor, who is wearing a black face mask.
The protestor blasts Elisha, a former Goldman Sachs executive, for coming to the rally in Manhattan wearing the Israeli flag. Elisha calls out the man for saying his flag was a symbol of “terrorism.”
“Take off your mask,” Elisha said, grabbing the protestor’s to hand to seemingly stop him for recording the confrontation. “Don’t touch me, buddy,” the protester says. Finally, an NYPD officer intervened to stop the heated exchange.
In the video posted on social media, Elisha claimed the NYPD asked him to remove the flag because the “situation was getting dangerous.” “Video of the Penn Station incident. 500 Hamas supporters shouting slogans surrounded us. I put on an Israeli flag I carry with me. The cowards hid behind their masks. NYPD insisted I remove the flag as situation was getting dangerous,” he wrote.
‘You take after your father’
Many people in the comment section condemned the NYPD, with one of them saying, “This is outrageous. I get that @NYPDTransit wants to de-escalate a situation, but that shouldn't include forcing you to remove the flag. What about that man's kaffiyeh?” “You take after your father,” one user said hailing Elisha, while another wrote, “You are a hero. Instead of hassling you, the NYPD should have been rounding up the offenders and carting them off to jail.”
“Your father should be very proud, as we all are,” one user said. Another wrote, “I love this man. And I loved his father. May he rest in peace. He’d be very proud of you”. “Cowards, why does he hide behind a mask. I'm sorry you had to go through that time,” one user wrote.
