A pro-Palestinian male who entered the U.S. illegally was caught on video Sunday stealing a pro-Israel flag from a home on Long Island, New York, and then beating up the homeowner who confronted him, police said.
What are the details?
Aleks Binyaminov had been displaying an Israeli-American flag as well as a sign reading “We stand with Israel” in front of his Hewlett home after Hamas murdered his wife’s cousin on Oct. 7, WCBS-TV reported.
The station said Binyaminov’s security cameras alerted him of a man walking up his driveway and then walking off with his pro-Israel display — after which Binyaminov got on his child’s bicycle to get his property back.
“When I grabbed the flag away from him, he was saying ‘I’m from Palestine, you Jews are killing Palestinians,'” Binyaminov recalled to WNBC-TV, adding that “he punched me in the face … put me in a chokehold, and he head-butted me — that’s how I got a black eye.”
Nassau County Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Smith noted to WNBC that “the subject continued to swing wildly and struggle with the victim and threw the victim to the ground.”
WCBS said Nassau County Police arrested 26-year-old Bechir Lehbeib, who they say illegally crossed the border into Arizona in November and was staying in a migrant shelter on Staten Island.
Lehbeib told police he’s from North Africa and took a bus to Hewlett to look for a job, WCBS added.
“Well, people who look for work don’t usually do that in a residential area and then rip down people’s flag and signs,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said, according to WCBS.
Blakeman and Republican elected officials blasted border policies for the incident, WNBC reported.
According to WCBS, Blakeman compared the flag-stealing and physical attack to the recent assault on NYPD officers in Times Square: “They spit on our flag, they trample on our values, and they commit crimes, and they do so at taxpayer expense.”
Binyaminov, a Russian native and immigrant, told WCBS that people “coming in should be vetted carefully. I never thought this would happen with me. As a Jew, we live here, all of us, happily without any problems. It feels a little bit disgusting that this happened to us.”
WCBS added that the suspect pleaded not guilty to hate crime, robbery, and assault charges, was ordered held on $50,000 bail, and had to surrender his passport.
According to the New York Post, the accused allegedly ranted to police that he hated Israeli Jews, made other hateful statements, and said, “If I see the flag of the people that killed my people, we will have a problem.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!