New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement Tuesday with Betar US, a right-wing Jewish group she accused of trying to intimidate pro-Palestinian activists.
The settlement agreement requires Betar to stop activities that threaten or intimidate Muslim, Jewish and Palestinian activists at protests and to curb frequent social media posts, according to James’ office. The agreement includes a $50,000 penalty for violations.
In a statement, James said the state would not tolerate intimidation aimed at silencing political speech. “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.
Betar gained attention last year after claiming it had compiled the names of campus protesters against the war in Gaza and submitted them to Trump administration officials. The group also boasted of using facial recognition software to identify masked activists, according to the AP report.
The AP said James’ office cited an incident in which a Betar member repeatedly urged pro-Palestinian protesters at a New York campus to take beepers. James’ office said the reference was to Israel’s detonation of thousands of electronic pagers to kill and wound members of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Betar chairman Ronn Torossian disputed the allegations. Torossian said the group had done nothing illegal, including intimidation, and argued that the document included no admission of guilt. “You have people walking the streets vowing to murder Jews,” Torossian said Tuesday. “So somebody can’t hand them a beeper that they buy on eBay, OK?” he said, adding, “We make no admission of guilt in this document.”
James accused Betar of carrying out “an alarming and illegal pattern of bias-motivated harassment” against activists in the New York City area. Her office said Betar indicated plans to wind down its operations.
The AP report said Betar identifies itself as part of a militant Zionist group founded a century ago in Eastern Europe and based in Israel, and that its New York operations were conducted through an entity known as Betar Zionist Organization Inc. James’ office described the group as having centered activities on the metropolitan area and maintaining an outspoken presence on social media.
The report said Betar’s claims about submitting names of campus protesters gained greater significance after U.S. immigration agents arrested several campus activists last March. A Homeland Security official later testified that the government targeted protesters using lists assembled by Canary Mission as well as by Betar, according to the AP.
James said her office began investigating after complaints that the group had been threatening protesters. In Tuesday’s announcement, her office also pointed to social media posts it said were intended to incite hostility.
The AP report included examples of such posts. Before a February 2025 protest in New York against the sale of land in the West Bank, Betar 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.” The AP also reported that last January Betar called for protesters to take off their head coverings and referred to them as “rape rags.”