New York, New York - New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani backed the police response to protests that took place Tuesday against an event at a Manhattan synagogue promoting the sale of land in the illegally occupied West Bank.

Protesters gathered near the Park East Synagogue on Tuesday after it rented out the space for the Great Israeli Real Estate Event. The expo, organized by My Home in Israel, marketed homes for sale in West Bank settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.

PAL-Awda NY/NJ, which organized the demonstration, accused NYPD officers of beating and pepper spraying protesters. Videos on social media appear to show police pushing metal barricades into a crowd of people chanting and waving Palestinian flags.

The following day, Mamdani seemed to express his approval of the NYPD's actions during a press conference.

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"We in this city believe in the sacrosanct nature of the right to protest and also are committed to ensuring that any New Yorker can safely enter or exit from a house of worship and that that access never be in question while we also protect the First Amendment," Mamdani said on Wednesday.

"I do believe the police ensured that yesterday," he added.

The mayor went on to say "there is no tolerance for antisemitism" in his administration while expressing his opposition to land sale events like the one that took place on Tuesday.

"I've also been clear to New Yorkers about my honest opinions about the fact that when we have a real estate expo that is promoting the sale of land which includes the sale of land in the occupied West Bank in settlements that are violation of international law, that that is something I firmly disagree with and that I also believe that many New Yorker firmly disagree with because it has been at the heart of an ongoing effort to displace Palestinians from their homes," Mamdani said.

The protest came just two weeks after Mamdani vetoed legislation allowing the NYPD to create buffer zones limiting the right to protest around schools and educational institutions but declined to veto another concerning houses of worship.

Pro-Palestinian and civil rights groups have condemned the police response to the protest.

"The NYPD’s no-speech zone last night was unprecedented, unreasonable, and outrageous, sprawling six blocks from the subject of the demonstration and across multiple avenues, streets, and even into subway stations," the New York Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.

"The NYPD’s imposition of an enormous frozen zone doesn’t just muzzle New Yorkers’ voices and interfere with getting their message out, it also escalates tensions. Last night the NYPD deployed its SRG unit which, to no one’s surprise, ramped up the conflict. Officers used pepper spray indiscriminately against demonstrators."

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"With Albany now considering legislation that could ban protests across large swaths of our cities, last night should make clear to state lawmakers that no-speech zones are dangerous to our rights, to the safety of New Yorkers who care enough to speak out, and to our democracy."

PAL-Awda NY/NJ, which organized the demonstration, took aim at Mamdani on X, writing, "NYPD set up frozen zones 300 feet away. Protestors were kettled, beat and pepper sprayed to help facilitate a real estate event you claim to oppose. The [Strategic Response Group], who you promised to disband, drove motorbikes into protestors. Tell us how you are preserving New Yorkers right to protest."

"We reaffirm our demands to the Mamdani administration to advance meaningful calls to the Attorney General to investigate, audit and stop stolen Palestinian land sales, remove the tax exempt status of those hosting these events; drop [Jessica Tisch] as Police Commissioner; and disband the Strategic Response Group, in order to curb the NYPD's discriminatory targeting of our community," the group said in a statement.

"We continue to look towards the steadfast people of Gaza and across Palestine as we protest and disrupt. So long as there is impunity in our neighborhoods for the theft of Palestinian land, we refuse to remain silent."