New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, announced a settlement on Tuesday with Betar US, a far-right pro-Israel group, after an investigation from her office that found the organization engaged in what her office described as “bias-motivated assaults, threats, and harassment targeting Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish New Yorkers”.
The settlement requires Betar to “immediately cease instigating or encouraging violence against individuals, threatening protesters, and harassing individuals exercising their civil rights”, and subjects the organization to a suspended $50,000 penalty that will be enforced if the group violates the terms.
James’s office also said that Betar was seeking to dissolve its not-for-profit corporation and had indicated that it was winding down operations in New York.
According to a news release from the James’s office on Tuesday, an investigation by the office of the attorney general (OAG) determined that Betar – which has been labelled an “extremist group” by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish advocacy group – “repeatedly targeted individuals based on religion and national origin”. It also uncovered evidence of what the office described as “Betar’s widespread persecution of Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish New Yorkers, driven by broad hostility and animus toward several protected groups, in violation of New York civil rights laws”.
“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 on Tuesday. “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. This behavior is unacceptable, and it is not who we are as New Yorkers.”
The Guardian reported in March that Betar had claimed to have submitted a list of “thousands of names” to the Trump administration of students and faculty members who they believed to be on visas and had participated in campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, urging their deportation.
That same month, Betar US drew headlines after it claimed credit for the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist and permanent US resident who was detained by ICE for months.
In a statement following Tuesday’s settlement announcement, Betar spokesperson Daniel Levy said that Betar “categorically denies all allegations of wrongdoing”.
The statement added: “BETAR remains steadfast in its commitment to Zionism, the Jewish people, and the State of Israel.”
The group also posted statements on social media reacting to the news of the settlement, saying that Betar US “voluntarily withdrew from operating in NY and advises all Zionist and Zionist organizations [sic] to do the same.”
According to the news release from James’s office, the OAG investigation into Betar began in March 2025, after the OAG received multiple complaints alleging that “Betar and its members engaged in violent and threatening conduct directed at Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish individuals, particularly in connection with protests related to Israel and Palestine.”
Ross Glick, who was the executive director of Betar US for several months until February of last year, told the Guardian in March that the group’s so-called “deportation list” was compiled through tips and social media research. He also claimed that the group had assistance from “facial recognition AI-based technology”, though he declined to provide details.
James’s office said that Betar later “disavowed” those claims, but said that her office concluded that “this conduct was designed to intimidate protesters and unlawfully chill the exercise of First Amendment rights”.
The group was also found to have publicly circulated “content celebrating violence against Palestinians, including social media posts mocking civilian deaths, declaring hatred toward Gazans, and calling for further bloodshed”.
The investigation also cited “multiple incidents of physical intimidation and assault”. It found that in early 2025, individuals affiliated with Betar approached people “perceived to be Muslim or supportive of Palestinian causes” and “attempted to force ‘beepers’ onto them” – an apparent reference to Israel’s deadly 2024 operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which killed at least a dozen people and injured thousands.
Investigators also reportedly found that Betar “promoted and encouraged violence, even urging its members to bring weapons to protests, including knives, pepper spray, and attack dogs”. In one incident mentioned in the news release, it states that after a member of Betar’s national leadership “physically struck a woman wearing a keffiyeh, the group celebrated the incident online, sharing video footage on its social media”.
James’s office also noted that despite soliciting donations in New York through its website and social media, “Betar has never registered with OAG’s Charities Bureau.”
Reacting to the settlement on Tuesday evening, Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, said that Betar had, for years, “sowed a campaign of hatred across New York, trafficking in Islamophobic extremism and harassing those with whom they disagreed”.
“There is no place for their bigotry in our politics,” he said, adding that he was “grateful” to the New York attorney general for her “unflagging pursuit of justice”.
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