New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement Tuesday with Betar US, a right-wing Jewish group she accused of conducting an illegal pattern of harassment against pro-Palestinian activists in the New York City metropolitan area. The agreement requires the group to stop activities that threaten or intimidate Muslim, Jewish and Palestinian activists at protests and on social media, with a $50,000 penalty for any violation.
“New York will not tolerate organizations that use fear, violence and intimidation to silence free expression or target people because of who they are,” James said in a written statement.
The settlement drew attention to Betar’s earlier claims that it had compiled names of campus activists who protested the war in Gaza and submitted them to Trump administration officials urging deportation — lists a Homeland Security official later testified the government used when federal immigration agents arrested several campus protesters last March.
Group’s Response
Ronn Torossian, chairman of Betar, disputed the allegations and denied that the group had done anything illegal, including intimidation. “You have people walking the streets vowing to murder Jews,” he said Tuesday. “So somebody can’t hand them a beeper that they buy on eBay, OK? We make no admission of guilt in this document.”
Activities That Drew Scrutiny
James said her office began investigating the group, chartered in a New York suburb, after receiving complaints that it had been threatening protesters. Her office cited several incidents it said were intended to incite hostility.
In one incident, a Betar member repeatedly urged pro-Palestinian protesters at a New York campus to take beepers — a reference to Israel’s detonation of thousands of electronic pagers to kill and wound members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia.
Before a February 2025 protest in New York against the sale of land in the West Bank, the group posted: “We urge everyone to bring dogs, borrow a pit bull. Feel free to mask up and wear a helmet. Jihadis are coming to attack synagogues.” In another post last January, the group called protesters’ head coverings “rape rags.”
Betar also boasted of using facial recognition software to identify masked activists.
Background and Current Status
Betar identifies itself as part of a militant Zionist movement founded a century ago in Eastern Europe and based in Israel. The New York entity, officially known as Betar Zionist Organization Inc., centered its activities on the metropolitan area, where members sometimes confronted pro-Palestinian activists at protests and the group maintained an outspoken social media presence.
James accused the group of carrying out “an alarming and illegal pattern of bias-motivated harassment” against activists in the area.
The group has indicated plans to wind down its operations, James’ office said. Torossian said the New York entity was no longer active and that its successor was based elsewhere.