🇺🇸 The NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating smashed windows at a Capital One branch on Manhattan's Upper East Side, where "PAL ACTION" and "DROP ELBIT" were spray-painted early Monday. No one was hurt and no arrests have been reported.
A group identifying itself as Palestine Action claimed responsibility. "Do business with Elbit, and we will cost you money," it told NBC New York. Capital One has faced protests over a reported $90 million loan to Elbit Systems, Israel's largest weapons maker, complicit in the genocide in Gaza and war crimes across the region. The Trump administration designated the UK-based Palestine Action a “terrorist” group in August.
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin said she urged police to treat the attack on a bank as a possible “antisemitic hate crime.” Neither the graffiti nor the group's statement mentions Jews or Judaism. Under New York law, a hate crime requires that a target be chosen because of a protected trait such as race or religion. Capital One is a Virginia-based bank, and the stated target was its business with an arms company.
NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin on this morning’s vandalism of a Capital One branch on the Upper East Side, where windows were smashed and graffiti reading “DROP ELBIT” and “PAL ACTION” was left on the entrance:
“What the NYPD is doing now is they're investigating it as a hate crime. They're gonna do a fast investigation; we appreciate their work on this, and the community is deeply concerned and upset about it.”