The militant pro-Israel group Betar US has agreed to halt its operations in New York in a settlement with state Legal professional Normal Letitia James, whose workplace discovered that the group had dedicated a “marketing campaign of violence, harassment, and intimidation in opposition to Arab, Muslim, and Jewish New Yorkers.”
The settlement introduced Tuesday adopted a months-long investigation into Betar US triggered by “a number of complaints and public reviews about Betar’s violence in opposition to and harassment of Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish activists,” James’s workplace stated.
The investigation discovered that Betar inspired its followers to convey weapons to pro-Palestinian protests, trespassed onto personal property to steal Palestinian flags and adopted and struck individuals sporting keffiyehs. The group boasted on social media about its actions, together with incidents of violence, a apply that the settlement settlement notes.
The settlement settlement particulars inflammatory social media posts that demeaned and known as for violence in opposition to Palestinians in Gaza. It additionally notes that the group pressured beepers onto individuals who appeared Muslim or Jewish and supported the Palestinian trigger — a reference to Israel’s exploding pager operation that focused Hezbollah in September 2024.
The investigation additionally discovered that the group harassed and threatened Jewish lecturers and different Jews who “profess views Betar deems not aligned with their imaginative and prescient of Judaism or Israel.”
General, James’ workplace discovered that Betar US violated civil rights rules by harassing individuals who had been exercising their constitutional proper to protest.
As a part of the settlement, Betar US agreed to “instantly stop instigating or encouraging violence in opposition to people, threatening protesters, and harassing people exercising their civil rights,” the language reads. The group is topic to a $50,000 high-quality if it violates the phrases of the settlement inside the subsequent three years, throughout which it should submit annual compliance reviews.
New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James speaks throughout a press convention on the workplace of the Legal professional Normal on Dec. 15, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures)
“New York won’t tolerate organizations that use worry, violence, and intimidation to silence free expression or goal individuals due to who they’re,” James stated in an announcement. “My workplace’s investigation uncovered an alarming and unlawful sample of bias-motivated harassment and violence designed to terrorize communities and shut down lawful protest.”
It was the primary penalty handed down by a state regulation enforcement company in opposition to Betar US for the reason that group emerged as an exemplar of aggressive, truculent pro-Israel counter-protests within the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assaults in Israel and subsequent warfare in Gaza.
The settlement settlement specifies that Betar doesn’t admit or deny any of the findings, and in its personal assertion the group denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Based in 2024 as an homage to a militant Zionist group in pre-state Israel, the group says it’s going to proceed as a worldwide entity however will not function in New York, the place a big portion of its actions had beforehand been concentrated.
In texts to the Jewish Telegraphic Company, Ronn Torossian, a public relations government and founding father of Betar Worldwide who attested within the settlement that he now lives in Israel, stated the group had sought to disband its New York operations since final March.
CEO 5W Public Relations Ronn Torossian speaks throughout 5WPR fifteenth Anniversary Occasion at Catch Rooftop on June 14, 2017 in New York Metropolis. In 2024 Torossian relaunched the Zionist group Betar in the US. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Pictures for DuJour)
“We urge all Zionist nonprofits to disband in NYC,” Torossian wrote by way of WhatsApp, a perspective additionally echoed by Betar’s social media accounts following the settlement announcement, during which the group acknowledged, “NY stands with Palestine. We advise all Zionist organizations to disband within the state of NY.”
Torossian additionally shared an extended assertion from Betar spokesperson Daniel Levy defending the group’s method to Zionist activism and linking its actions to religious founder Ze’ev Jabotinsky.
“Betar is mainstream Zionism, and is a company with out which the State of Israel wouldn’t exist,” Levy stated in an announcement to JTA. “We urge Zionists to come back house to Israel.”
Because the group has inspired its followers to “battle again” in opposition to pro-Palestinian demonstrators in New York, it has drawn followers and acquired assist, together with from the celeb musician Matisyahu.
But it surely has additionally confronted criticism from mainstream Jewish organizations over its ways to battle antisemitism, which have included figuring out pro-Palestinian protesters for the Trump administration to deport. In not less than one case, in accordance with a federal decide, a Betar social media publish instantly led to a pro-Palestinian protester’s detention. (The settlement settlement stated Betar maintained it had not employed the facial recognition software program it had beforehand boasted of utilizing to establish protesters.)
A scene from a pro-Israel counterprotest to a pro-Palestinian demonstration outdoors a synagogue in Borough Park, Brooklyn, that was endorsed by Betar US and features a Jewish Protection League flag. (Screenshot by way of X)
In February, the group was added to the Anti-Defamation League’s extremism database after Torossian tried to confront a gathering of firm Jewish teams in Israel. Torossian was additionally briefly barred from the World Zionist Congress over a vicious dispute with rival pro-Israel activist Shai Davidai, however he was later permitted to function a delegate.
“As a Zionist activist who has been personally focused by @Betar_USA and its founder Ronn Torossian, I can say that that is lengthy overdue,” Davidai wrote on X following the settlement announcement. He added that it was “time to do the identical” for Inside Our Lifetime, a radical pro-Palestinian group lively in New York.
The ADL didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
Rabbi Elchanan Poupko, a Connecticut-based rabbi previously with Park East Synagogue in New York, defended Betar and criticized the settlement on X.
“Banning @Betar_USA whereas persevering with to provide authorized permits to Brownshirts protesting outdoors synagogues is mindless,” Poupko wrote, referring to latest far-left anti-Israel protesters who’ve demonstrated outdoors synagogues within the metropolis — together with some final week who vocally supported Hamas.
The lawyer normal’s workplace stated that it initially launched their investigation into Betar US in March, shortly after the group allegedly urged supporters to “battle again” in opposition to “terrorists” and urged followers to convey pit bulls to a counterprotest in opposition to pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Brooklyn. Violent clashes broke out between the 2 teams at that protest.
Vdeos and pictures shared by the Betar US social media account in February 2025 that helped lead the Anti-Defamation League so as to add the group to their glossary of extremism embody (l-r) a video of a person yelling profane remarks at a New York mosque; a video of comic Michael Rapaport praising Rabbi Meir Kahane; and a publish praising the Proud Boys. (Screenshots by way of X)
Betar US is included as a nonprofit in Katonah, New York, and solicits donations however by no means registered with the lawyer normal’s Charities Bureau, in accordance with the settlement.
In an announcement to the Jewish Telegraphic Company, Levy stated the group was included in Delaware — a typical apply for nonprofits — and emphasised its operations in Israel. “Betar maintains international headquarters in Metzudat Ze’ev, Beit Jabotinsky in Tel Aviv,” he stated. “Prime Minister Netanyahu maintains a private workplace within the constructing.”
He insisted the group would stay lively regardless of the shutdown in New York..
“No one can dictate to us from the diaspora what’s professional Zionism or not,” Levy stated. “We’ll proceed to serve the individuals of Israel, within the Land of Israel, as residents of the State of Israel.”
