US sues over November anti-Israel protest outside New Jersey synagogue

The US Justice Department is suing anti-Israel organizations and demonstrators it accuses of intimidating Jewish worshipers at a New Jersey synagogue, using a US law that has traditionally been used against people blocking access to abortion clinics.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in New Jersey federal court, alleges that a November 13 protest against an event at a synagogue in West Orange, New Jersey, billed as a spiritual service and Israel real estate fair, escalated into violence.

Demonstrators physically assaulted some worshipers and chanted and used vuvuzelas — plastic trumpets sometimes used by soccer fans — to disrupt the event, according to the complaint.

The case was brought under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, a 1994 law that prohibits the use of force and physical obstruction to interfere with people at reproductive health centers or houses of worship.

The Justice Department has brought several cases against protesters who have obstructed abortion clinics, but the case appears to be the first time the law has been used to allege interference with religious worship, according to Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“The practice of turning a blind eye to these attacks on houses of worship throughout the United States stops now,” Dhillon, who was nominated to the role by US President Donald Trump, told reporters at a press conference.

The Justice Department under Trump has curtailed the use of the FACE Act in abortion-related cases, alleging that past criminal prosecutions represented an improper politicized use of law enforcement. Dhillon said those restrictions do not apply to cases related to houses of worship.

Trump in January pardoned several people who had been prosecuted under the law.

The civil lawsuit in New Jersey names the Party for Socialism and Liberation in New Jersey and Muslims for Palestine New Jersey as defendants. It seeks a court order barring those groups from using force or physical obstruction to interfere with worshipers at any house of worship in New Jersey.

Neither group could immediately be reached for comment.

The Trump administration has cracked down on anti-Israel protests, notably on US campuses, where it cut funding and revoked international students’ visas, citing universities’ alleged failure to crack down on antisemitism following the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.