Anti-Israel protester who told ‘Zionists’ to ID themselves on NYC subway cowers behind supporters as he faces judge
The anti-Israel protester who allegedly threatened straphangers by demanding that “Zionists” raise their hands on a packed Manhattan subway car cowered behind supporters as he faced a judge Monday.
Anas Saleh, 24, ducked behind umbrellas and scarves — and even scuffled with a Post photographer — as he tried to leave Manhattan Criminal Court without showing his face, flanked by more than a dozen supporters.
Prosecutors, during Saleh’s arraignment on a coercion charge, revealed new details about the disturbing June 10 incident at the Union Square station — including that a woman on the train feared she would be hurt by the anti-Israel mob.
Saleh “shouted ‘Raise your hand if you’re a Zionist. This is your chance to get out’ on a crowded subway train.. causing at least one passenger to exit the train in fear for their personal safety,” Assistant District Attorney Madeline Holbrook told the court.
The woman, who had intended to stay on the southbound train, told police she got off after hearing the warning because “she was afraid that if she did not leave the subway car, she would be physically harmed” by Saleh and the group of people participating in the chant, according to a criminal complaint.
Saleh’s attorney tried to get the case tossed, claiming Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is “under immense pressure” to go after anti-Israel protesters amid a spike in antisemitic violence — but was quickly shut down.
“My court, my rules,” Judge Michele Weber told Moira Meltzer-Cohen as she denied the request, cutting off the defense attorney a second time when the lawyer tried arguing that she, too, was “a Jew.”
Saleh, dressed in a black sweatshirt and a blue surgical mask, didn’t speak during the hearing, where he was released on his own recognizance on a misdemeanor charge of coercion in the third-degree, which is not a bail-eligible offense.
Weber also ordered that an order of protection be issued to keep him away from the frightened woman who left the train.
Two of Saleh’s supporters confronted and shoved a photographer for The Post while he scrambled to get away from the press following the arraignment.
Saleh, who is believed to have worked as a research tech at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Rhee Lab, turned himself in last week after cops and Jewish groups circulated his photo following the subway incident.
It is unclear if he remains employed there, but his online profile was scrubbed from the school’s site.
The Staten Island resident allegedly boarded the southbound 5 train at around 6:30 p.m. June 10 with more than 10 other protesters and issued the threat, police said.
It followed an ugly incident that saw a mob of anti-Israel demonstrators swarm a Manhattan exhibit that memorialized the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on the Jewish State.
Protesters then converged on Union Square, where one held a banner reading, “Long live October 7” and another screamed that he wished “Hitler was still here” to “wipe out” Jews.
Similar anti-Israel protests have plagued the Big Apple in the months following the terror attack, which prompted a strong Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Saleh faces up to a year in jail if he is convicted of the coercion charge.
He’s due back in court Aug. 12.
