ANTI SEMITE JAILED
Guilty in three attacks
A violent anti-Semite and staunch supporter of Palestine was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison Friday for three hate attacks on Jewish people in New York City within one year.
Manhattan federal court Judge Denise Cote imposed the term on Saadah Masoud of Staten Island, saying she believed he is a “deeply angry and disturbed person.”
Cote told Masoud, 29, his violent attacks were a “betrayal of your family and a betrayal of what you’re telling me your personal values are.”
Masoud pleaded guilty in November to a hate crimes conspiracy count for the three attacks.
On May 19, 2021, Masoud and others laid out plans to disrupt a pro-Israel demonstration in Midtown the next day on the encrypted messaging app Signal.
“I beat the s--t out of three Zionist[s] yesterday and didn’t even see a jail cell,” Masoud wrote in the chat, a sentencing submission filed by prosecutors shows.
He added: “VIOLENT!! ONLY VIOLENCE… IN PALESTINE THEY WISHHH THEY COULD SMACK A ZIONIST AND NOT GET TORTURED TO DEATH. WE CAN THO!!”
At the protest, Masoud confronted a demonstrator who was wearing a Star of David necklace and asked, “Are you a f--king Jew?” — then slugged him in the face.
Less than two weeks later, Masoud
and a co-conspirator drove by the Brooklyn home of Heshy Tischler, a conservative provocateur and Jewish activist, and spotted him sitting in his car.
“We know where you live, we’ll get you,” Masoud told Tischler, prosecutors wrote.
Tischler responded by getting out of the car and attempting to film the pair, but Masoud knocked his phone out of his hand and his associate punched him in the face.
In the final attack in April 2022, Masoud battered Matt Greenman at a pro-Palestine march in Midtown after Greenman showed up wearing an Israeli flag cape.
He beat Greenman and dragged his face along the sidewalk, causing a black eye and swelling. After his arrest, Masoud told a detective, “All of this for one Jew?”
An investigator from the US Attorney’s Office also overheard him say he didn’t want any “Greenbergs” for an attorney.
And he refused to see a pretrial service officer with the last name “Rothman,” landing him in jail prior to his guilty plea.
In brief remarks, Masoud apologized to the three victims and lamented that he went to protests where his anger “spilled over,” adding: “I learned this lesson at the expense of three individuals.”
Masoud’s attorney, Rhidaya Trivedi, said the attacks occurred at a heated moment between Israel and Palestine and prosecutors had attempted to erase “extremely important” context.