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The self-described “Jew hater” Columbia agitator who has alleged ties to a Hamas cell pleaded responsible to a string of hate crimes concentrating on Jewish individuals, but solely requested for forgiveness from the Palestinian group.
Tarek Bazrouk, 20, admitted to violently assaulting three Jewish individuals between April 2024 and January 2025 at a number of Manhattan protests of the conflict in Gaza, however used his probability to talk in Manhattan federal court docket to apologize to not Jews, however to the Palestinian group.
“I’m sorry. I’m Palestinian and I participated within the protest to show my outrage… I shouldn’t have used violence. I hope my household and group can forgive me,” Bazrouk stated on Wednesday.
The hole apology stands in stark distinction to the fervor Bazrouk embodied whereas committing the focused assaults in opposition to Jewish individuals throughout protests at Columbia College and in downtown Manhattan.
On April 15, 2024, the 20-year-old kicked a person sporting a kippa within the chest as he stood with an Israeli flag and sang a Jewish music throughout an illustration close to the New York Inventory Trade. Bazrouk assaulted two different people throughout that very same demonstration, in keeping with prosecutors.
A number of days later, Bazrouk stated he would “growth growth growth” the subsequent Jewish particular person he noticed, textual content messages revealed.
He then punched one other kippa-wearing man within the face whereas the sufferer carried an Israeli flag throughout a protest on December 9, 2024, prosecutors stated.
The confessed antisemite punched yet one more Israeli flag-bearer within the face at a protest earlier this 12 months on January 6, in keeping with court docket testimony.
Bazrouk has no affiliation with Columbia, however was an out of doors agitator who joined the campus protests. The college stated it has no file of him ever being on campus.
Following his Might arrest for the assaults, federal officers found extra insidious proof after looking out Bazrouk’s Manhattan house, the place he lived along with his mother and father and a number of other different members of the family.
Investigators seized 4 knives, a duplicate firearm, brass knuckles, $750,000 in money in a secure, and Bazrouk’s mobile phone, which revealed chilling textual content messages.
Bazrouk was “a member of a chat group that obtained common updates from Abu Obeda,” which is linked to Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades militant group, The Put up revealed earlier this month.
In textual content messages, the 20-year-old described himself as a “Jew hater,” known as Jewish individuals “nugatory,” and exhorted a pal to “slap that bitch” in reference to a girl who had an Israel flag sticker on her laptop computer, court docket paperwork revealed.
The “Jew hater” additional claimed to a pal that he was proud a few of his members of the family have been preventing with Hamas abroad, textual content messages confirmed.
Attorneys for Bazrouk rejected any connection between their shopper and the fear group.
The $750,000 in money was seized by the federal government, with Bazrouk agreeing to its forfeiture.
Decide Richard Berman suggested the hateful brute that he faces a most sentence of 5 years behind bars, two years supervised launch, and a $250,000 wonderful.
Berman added that Bazrouk may be pressured to pay restitution to his victims.
Bazrouk can have a sentencing listening to on October 1.
He nonetheless has two pending circumstances in state court docket for the incidents in December and January.
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