A Zionist extremist group notorious for doxxing pro-Palestine college students and providing lists of activists to the Trump administration is set to cease operations in New York after an investigation by Letitia James, the state’s attorney general.
“New York will not tolerate organizations that use fear, violence, and intimidation to silence free expression.”
Betar U.S., the American chapter of an international Zionist group of the same name, will dissolve its not-for-profit status in New York and wind down operations in the state as part of a settlement with James’s office.
“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 statement. “My office’s investigation uncovered an alarming and illegal pattern of bias-motivated harassment and violence designed to terrorize communities and shut down lawful protest.”
The investigation into Betar by the Office of the Attorney General found that, in addition to violating state civil rights laws barring bias-motivated violence and harassment, the group had never registered with the state-level Charities Bureau. (A spokesperson for Betar U.S. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
The investigation began in March of last year after her office received formal complaints of harassment by the group, James said. If Betar continues its activities, it faces an $80,000 fine and other potential consequences, according to a statement from James’s office.
“The OAG investigation determined that Betar engaged in a pattern of violence and harassment driven by explicit hostility toward protected groups,” the statement alleged. “The OAG uncovered numerous public and private statements by Betar leadership and members expressing anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim animus, including repeated use of slurs and demeaning language.”
The group, which has been accused of links to the far-right Kahanist movement that is banned in Israel, gleefully claimed a role in the arrest last year of pro-Palestine students by immigration officials. Members frequently threatened pro-Palestine demonstrators with violence, including a campaign to send pagers to its opponents in reference to Israel’s 2024 use of rigged devices to assassinate Hezbollah militants — killing nearby civilians — in Lebanon.
At a vigil last year in New York City for Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old girl killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, the group chanted “ICE, ICE, ICE.” Members made a show of documenting people’s faces with the stated goal of using facial-recognition software to identify them and give names to the Department of Homeland Security.
Betar’s methods are so extreme that they have even drawn the ire of fellow Zionists, including the Anti-Defamation League, which included the organization in a list of hate groups, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
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