Watchdog group: Antisemitic attacker’s plea deal ‘slap on the wrist’

NEW YORK / (JNS) — A New York man has pleaded guilty to assaulting a Jewish man wearing an Israeli military hoodie last December.

Suleiman Othman of Staten Island, N.Y., will spend two months in jail and serve three years of probation, which Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said “should send a message that this kind of intolerance has serious consequences.”

The watchdog group StopAntisemitism sees things differently.

The organization is “extremely troubled” that a repeat offender is getting such a light sentence, it stated. “These slap-on-the-wrist punishments serve only to make New York City’s Jews less safe by emboldening those who would do them harm.”

The group also called on the city’s criminal justice leaders to “hold antisemites accountable rather than handing them sweetheart deals.”

On Dec. 26, 2021, Suleiman Othman, then 28, punched Blake Zavadsky, then 21, twice and threw an iced coffee at him. He insisted that Zavadsky take off his Israeli sweatshirt and said: “Why do you support those dirty Jews?”