Skateboarders skate in an empty water fountain in Washington Square Park, Manhattan, New York City. Photo: Jimin Kim / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

Every year New York City’s municipal government confers hundreds of permits to activists seeking a stage on its busy streets or in one of its verdant public parks. One such gathering this week tackled one of the world’s most contentious issues — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — but not in the typical way.

On Monday, The Algemeiner was invited to Washington Square Park, just outside New York University in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, to spectate on one of the more creative political productions put on by people who care about the Middle Eastern conflict,

Organized by Frontline Advocates, a nonprofit group that works with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the event was carried out in a style reminiscent of what British novelist John le Carré called the “theatre of the real” in his 1987 novel The Little Drummer Girl, in which a left-wing actress infiltrates a jihadist terror cell to help an Israeli spy, Joseph, capture a Palestinian terrorist.

The organization, which sends delegations of former Israeli soldiers and pro-Israel advocates to college campuses and public squares, set up an ensemble cast of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists divided between obvious pro-Israel partisans and those assigned to play Hamas terrorists, pro-Hamas sympathizers, and others serving impromptu roles seemingly to advocate the Palestinian cause.

Formally, the group had been granted permission to “table” — a campus culture staple in which members of a student club sit and stand around a folding table to promote their presence — in the park. Established across the Central Fountain & Plaza, IDF reservists such as Frontline founder and CEO Stav Cohen hovered near the operation base, sometimes with the Israeli flag draped over their shoulders, while their colleagues swapped turns accusing Israel of genocide, rape, and apartheid while promising to kill, in the name of antisemitism, more Jews than those Hamas murdered on Oct. 7, 2023.

Over a dozen New Yorkers took the bait, rushing to join the faux Hamas terrorists and their sympathizers in condemning Israel not as a government whose policies can change but as an emblem of the global Jewish community.

Some people who walked by sexualized Frontline’s women, claimed to be Palestinians from Kuwait, and casually trafficked in antisemitic tropes while openly fantasizing about the violence to which the Jewish reservists would be subjected were they not accompanied by armed security and friends.

“They are monsters, they’re f—king depraved,” shouted one man who harassed the group for over 20 minutes. “They cannot help themselves … you Jewish motherf—kers are vicious.”

In another tense moment, The Algemeiner watched a younger white male set off a thermal flash of anger across the plaza when he began screaming at a female reservist, his face taking the form of a crimson mask. Minutes later, social media activist Chris Smalls approached the table and proceeded to menace and shout before destroying some of Frontline’s signs.

The enterprise poses many risks, according to Cohen, who spoke to The Algemeiner on Friday following recent death threats made against his team members. Hackers also managed to delete their Instagram page.

“We’re getting many threats, because the idea of IDF speaking to students is simply horrible to them,” Cohen said. “I assume actually that a vast majority of the messages are Iranian bots, so I don’t know if it’s that’s interesting. But many pro-Palestinian activists and influencers are posting videos and telling everyone not to engage with us.”

He added, “In my opinion, that is what is most interesting, that they are not even willing to talk to us.”

Frontline Advocate’s visiting New York City came amid an ongoing surge in hate crimes across the five boroughs. As previously reported, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) confirmed in July that Jews were targeted by more hate crimes than any other racial, ethnic, or religious group during the first six months of 2026, deepening concerns among Jewish leaders that antisemitism has intensified during the opening months of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.