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Joey Borgen’s attackers plead guilty on hate crime charges for 2021 beating
(New York Jewish Week) — Two men pled guilty this week for attacking Joey Borgen, a Jewish man who was severely beaten in 2021 while walking to a pro-Israel rally in Manhattan.
Waseem Awawdeh, one of five men who punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and beat Borgen with crutches, pled guilty on Tuesday for attempted assault in the second degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. The Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed his plea to the New York Jewish Week. It was first reported by Jewish Insider.
The beating, which took place amid a spike in antisemitism surrounding Israel’s 2021 war with Hamas in Gaza, drew national attention. And the court battle that followed led to criticism from activists in the city’s Jewish community that District Attorney Alvin Bragg was being too lenient with Awawdeh. Earlier this month, Borgen’s father, Barry, was invited by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee to testify at a hearing in New York City on Bragg and violent crime in Manhattan.
Awawdeh will serve a total of 18 months in jail, and will be sentenced on June 13, Bragg’s office said. That includes 12 months for the attempted assault charge, and six months for the criminal possession charge, to be served consecutively.
Another defendant, Faisal Elezzi, pled guilty to attempted assault in the third degree as a hate crime on Monday. He will be sentenced on June 8 to three years’ probation and is required to continue compliance with anti-bias programming. Both Awawdeh and Elezzi were required to make a public apology.
Awawdeh’s sentence is longer than a six-month plea deal Bragg had reportedly offered him months ago, which had spurred backlash from Borgen, his family and Jewish activist groups, which demanded a longer sentence.
But Borgen told the New York Jewish Week that he still is not “happy about” the sentences, which he believes should be harsher. He pointed to a report that Awawdeh had said he would “do it again.”
Borgen was wearing a yarmulke while heading to a pro-Israel rally, the same day Hamas and Israel announced a ceasefire after 11 days of conflict, when he was attacked on the street in Midtown on May 20, 2021 by five people, including Awawdeh and Elezzi. Awawdeh also yelled “dirty Jew” while beating Borgen, who was sent to the hospital and needed surgery on his wrist.
A two-year court battle ensued. The Manhattan DA’s said in a statement that “antisemitic hate has no place in Manhattan.”
“These defendants have now pled guilty to hate crime charges and apologized for their actions following a thorough investigation by the Office,” the statement said. “We will continue to seek accountability for the remaining defendants, who are all facing significant state prison time if convicted.”
The prosecution of Borgen’s case puts it in the minority of hate crimes complaints in Manhattan. According to NYPD statistics, police precincts in the borough received 241 hate crime complaints in 2022, and made 118 arrests based on those complaints.
Bragg’s office told the New York Jewish Week that 92 hate crimes were prosecuted in Manhattan last year. As of late March, his office had 20 currently open hate crime cases related to antisemitism from this year. A report last year in The City, a local publication, found that most hate crimes charges are dropped before any convictions take place.
The next court date for the remaining three defendants — Mohammed Othman, Mohammed Said Othman and Mahmoud Musa — is May 11.
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The post Joey Borgen’s attackers plead guilty on hate crime charges for 2021 beating appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.