WATCH: Jewish Man Savagely Beaten by Antisemites slams DA Bragg over Plea Deal

NEW YORK CITY (VINnews) — Joseph Borgen, the orthodox Jewish man who was beaten by a mob in a hate attack in Manhattan, told a courtroom he couldn’t “fathom” why his attacker got a plea deal from the Manhattan DA’s Office.

Borgen was brutally beaten by a group of pro-Palestinian riotersin May 2021, as he made his way to a pro-Israel rally in Times Square while wearing a yarmulka.

Borgen delivered a fiery victim impact statement at the Manhattan Supreme Court sentencing of Waseem Awawdeh, 24, for attacking Borgen. Awawdeh was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

“Why is he getting a break? I really can’t fathom why he’s getting a deal. Me, personally, I wanted to go to trial, I wanted to see full justice,” Borgen told the court.

Borgen felt that the sentencing wasn’t enough.

“What kind of message does this send – to everybody, to all victims of hate crime?” he seethed. “Not just Jewish people but anyone who is a victim of a hate crime. You can say you won’t do it again, get arrested while on bail, do whatever you want, and you know what? We’ll give you a slap on the wrist – it’s okay!”

Borgen spoke in front of a courtroom with more than 30 supporters as he outlined his experience – telling the court how he continues to suffer, both emotionally and physically, from the attack.

Judge Felicia Mennin agreed to the sentence, saying: “The behavior of the group was despicable… This is not how people behave in a civilized society.”

Awawdeh’s attorney Peter Frankel weakly claimed that Awawdeh isn’t antisemitic – despite Borgen saying his attackers called him a “dirty Jew”.

“I’m a lifelong New Yorker, I’m a Jewish man. I have spent countless hours and days with Mr. Abudah,” Frankel said. “I have not seen anything whatsoever in my dealings with him to indicate that he is in any way antisemitic. Yes, he made a mistake here, and from day one, he has agreed to accept responsibility for what he has done.”

Awawdeh remained quiet during his sentencing but smiled and gave a head nod to a few people when he was cuffed and led out of court.

Borgen was wearing a grey yarmulka and walking toward a pro-Israel rally around 6:30pm when a young man with a black bandana started chasing him.

‘I turned around to try to figure out what was going on and the next thing I knew I was surrounded by a whole crowd of people who proceeded to physically attack me, beat me, kick me, punch me, hit me with crutches, hit me with flag poles,’ he told DailyMail.

‘After I wound up on the ground, I was literally just in a fetal position, trying to guard my head and face, literally just trying to make it out of their alive,’ Borgen said.

‘I thought I was going to die. I thought I was really going to die.’

Borgen said there were eight to 10 people taking part in the beatdown and they were shouting anti-Semitic slurs such as: ‘You filthy Jew. We’re going to ***** kill you. Go back to Israel. Hamas is going to kill you.’

The most painful part occurred toward the end, when they pepper sprayed him.

‘I thought I was getting urinated on because I felt a stream on my face. They maced me or pepper sprayed me for like a minute straight.’