In the spring of 2021 — amid a raucous public debate over conflict in Israel and Gaza, as well as a spike in antisemitic attacks — Masoud went to a pro-Israel rally in Manhattan. There, he asked a man wearing a Star of David necklace if he was Jewish, then punched him in the face. The man was walking with his wife, according to court papers.
Two weeks later, Masound alo shouted antisemitic insults at Heshy Tischler, an outspoken Orthodox activist in Brooklyn who had also railed against pandemic restrictions. After Tischler began filming, another associate of Masoud ultimately hit Tischler, who was running for City Council at the time.
Tischler addressed the court on Friday and called Masoud an “evil man” who showed up to “to see blood.”
And in 2022, Masoud was at a march hosted by the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime in Manhattan, where he assaulted a counterprotester, Matt Greenman, who had an Israeli flag draped over his body.
Masound threw Greenman to the ground, repeatedly punched him, dragged his face along the sidewalk, then ripped the Israeli flag from his neck, prosecutors said. At that same march, protestors called to ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and told the New York Jewish Week that they would not speak to the “Zionist Media.”