New York police arrested two teenagers Wednesday for ripping down Israeli hostage posters, reports the New York Post.
Charlotte Wimer and Grey Segal, both 18, were caught tearing down posters of Israeli children and adults kidnapped by Hamas, police say.
They were charged with criminal mischief.
Numerous people have been filmed in New York ripping down hostage posters, according to media reports.
Arguments over the posters led to the arrest of a woman at Columbia University, who was charged with assaulting another student. Another woman was arrested in Brooklyn last Saturday, accused of pepper-spraying a Jewish man after he confronted her about tearing down posters. News stories and social media posts have identified people ripping down posters, with the aim of trying to get people fired or thrown out of their schools.
Rafael Shimunov, a Jewish activist who has spoken out for Palestinians, said he thought the posters were mostly being torn down to oppose a long history of violence against Palestinians. "Like everything in this world, there's always portions of people who are motivated by antisemitism. But from what I've seen, overwhelmingly it's people who just don't want more war and more excuses for bombing civilians," he said.
He said he wished the posters didn't just focus on the Israelis "who were horribly, horribly brutalized and victimized."
Since the hostages were taken, Israel's retaliatory military strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed more than 10,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.