A 72-year-old Jewish man was attacked while hanging up hostage posters in New York City's Upper East Side by young men who shouted pro-Palestinian slogans before they hit him, CBS News New York reported on Monday. 

Amnon Shemi was hanging up hostage posters in his neighborhood when a group of young men approached him while yelling, "Free Palestine."

"They start yelling, 'Free Palestine, free Palestine" Shemi said. "I got punched right over here [his eyebrow]. It's kind of hard to see it now."

The New York Police Department is investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. 

Shemi has been hanging up hostage posters around the Upper East Side since the start of the Israel-Hamas War. He told WCBS that he'd anticipated an incident like this. 

A wall of hostage posters in seen in Jerusalem, September 5, 2024 (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
A wall of hostage posters in seen in Jerusalem, September 5, 2024 (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
"I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, but I don't know what to tell you. Probably the war in Gaza is escalating the whole situation and antisemitism and all kinds of stuff," he said.

The incident comes amidst a global surge in antisemitism and a string of antisemitic hate crimes across the US. Last week, 15 people were injured in an attack with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails in Boulder, Colorado, during a walk to raise awareness for the Gaza hostages. 

Crime data in New York is reflecting the nationwide surge in violent antisemitic attacks. NYPD sources told WCBS that 56% of all hate crimes in the city were antisemitic attacks. The broadcast outlet reported that just six months into 2025, some 138 anti-Jewish hate crimes were reported in New York City. However, this number is a 14% drop from June 2024, when 161 hate crimes were reported. 

The Anti-Defamation League's Regional Director, Scott Richman, said that most of what he sees are cases of verbal harassment. 

"The vast majority of what we track are not hate crimes, meaning you can't be arrested for it. These are in many cases harassment, speech-related, and for us, when we are tracking antisemitism, we need to track all of that in order to understand the state of antisemitism," Richman told WCBS. 

For Shemi and his wife, Diane, the hostages are an even more personal issue since a member of their extended family was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip.

"It's a terrible feeling, you know? You wake up feeling and thinking about it, and you go to sleep feeling and thinking about it. It just kind of consumes you," Diane Shemi said.

Despite the attack and the police investigation, Shemi said he will not stop hanging up the posters until every hostage is brought home. 

"I'll keep doing it until everybody's home," he said.