Suspects accused of vandalizing the home of the Brooklyn Museum director face a “terrorist threat hate crime” charge

Three suspects accused of vandalizing the home of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum have now been charged with “making a terroristic threat as a hate crime.”

The charges announced Monday refer to an incident in June in which the suspects allegedly tagged Anne Pasternak’s homethe museum’s Jewish director, with inverted red triangles, the symbols Hamas uses in videos to mark Israeli targets that have become popular among pro-Palestinian activists.

County District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Pasternak was targeted because of her Jewish identity and that the red triangle was a symbol of affiliation with a terrorist group.

Vandals also attacked the homes of other Brooklyn Museum officials in June, splattering Pasternak’s home with red paint, writing the words “Blood on your hands” and hanging a banner calling her a “white supremacy Zionist.” The act was part of a campaign against the museum led by the pro-Palestinian activist group Within Our Lifetime.

Gonzalez said in a Monday statement that the defendants allegedly “targeted members of the Brooklyn Museum board whose names sound Jewish, rather than two board members whose names do not sound Jewish.” Prosecutors did not name the vandals’ targets.

“Vandalism directed at individuals in their own homes is a deeply disturbing offense designed to intimidate, terrorize and incite fear,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “These defendants allegedly targeted museum board members with threats and anti-Semitic graffiti that referenced their supposed ancestry. These actions are not protests; they are hate crimes.”

The statement continued: “According to the investigation, the red triangles are linked to Hamas, a terrorist group.”

The defendants were named Taylor Pelton, 28, of Astoria, Queens; Samuel Seligson, 32, of Brooklyn; and Gabriel Schubiner, 36, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Schubiner, who is Jewish, had that too protested against a project with the Israeli military while working at GoogleHe was arraigned in court on Monday and released on bail. Seligson and Pelton are scheduled to be arraigned next week, Gonzalez’s office said. A lawyer for Seligson, whom the AP also identified as Jewish, says he was there as a journalist.

Three other suspects have not yet been arrested, the prosecutor said.

The charges include portraying a terrorist threat as a hate crime; criminal mischief as a hate crime and conspiracy as a hate crime. Pelton and Seligson were charged with criminal coercion as a hate crime in July. The terrorist threat charge and Schubiner’s arrest were first announced on Monday.

Making a terroristic threat is a Class D felony in New York defined as “intent to intimidate or coerce” through threats of murder, assassination or kidnapping. crimes can be considered Hate crimes in New York when the perpetrator selects a target based on their identity.

The added accusation marks another stage in the growing importance of the red triangle in the discourse about Israel and Gaza. The charges likely reflect prosecutors’ evolution in dealing with terror symbols, said Mitch Silber, head of the Community Security Initiative, which coordinates security for Jewish communities in the region.

“I’m not sure people knew what the red triangles were a year ago,” said Silber, the NYPD’s former director of intelligence analysis.

“The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that they will become more sophisticated,” Silber said of prosecutors.

New York lawmakers tried this Increase the number of crimes eligible for hate crime prosecutions in response to the rise in hate crimes, including anti-Semitic acts, this year. Under New York law: 66 crimes can be viewed as a hate crime and a The invoice Measures introduced last year would expand this list. For example, under current law, making a terrorist threat can be considered a hate crime, but making graffiti cannot.

Under New York State law, hate symbols such as swastikas and nooses are given special treatment in the prosecution of hate crimes and can elevate an offense to a hate crime. Red triangles could join the group of established hate symbols for prosecutors, Silber said.

“Red triangles, it’s new. They don’t specifically state it in the legislation, so I think prosecutors and district attorneys are getting creative in how they approach it,” he said. “The legislation hasn’t reflected reality, but I think that’s what we’re seeing here.”

He added: “It’s clear that the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force has done their homework on this and this will get everyone’s attention.”

The protests against the museum caused great outrage at the timewhich was condemned by leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Mayor Eric Adams.

Demonstrators protested the week before the incident defaced Brooklyn’s iconic OY/YO sculpture in front of the museum with pro-Palestinian graffiti.

The vandalism occurred after Within Our Lifetime urged his followers “act autonomously” against several New York museumsSharing a map highlighting the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art and others with a red inverted triangle.

demonstrators had required The museum “moves away from the Zionist genocide.”

Within Our Lifetime leader Nerdeen Kiswani defended the vandalism of Pasternak’s home in a series of posts on XShe said police attacked her during the earlier protest outside the museum, which she accused of “supporting genocide.”

Kiswani on Monday attacked The Brooklyn district attorney’s office referred to the charges, saying the vandals were “peacefully protesting.”

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