A Brooklyn man was arrested on hate crime charges nearly two months after he allegedly hurled a rock at a Jewish man and snarled, “Free Palestine,” cops said.
Mohamed Habachi, 23, was cuffed Tuesday morning in connection to the unprovoked Nov. 22 attack on a 47-year-old dad of six — and slapped with multiple charges including assault and menacing, both as hate crimes, authorities said Wednesday.
The news of the bust came as a relief for the victim, who asked The Post to only identify him by his first name, Shloimy.
“I’m obviously relieved that a man like that is off the street,” Shloimy said Wednesday. “This is what transpired so this is what they should charge him with.”
Shloimy was leaving his real estate job around 6:30 p.m. and heading to his car when cops said he was targeted by the bike-riding suspect on Montrose Avenue near South Fifth Street in Williamsburg.
“I felt something hit me,” Shloimy said in another phone interview last month. “I turned around in the direction of where I came from. There was someone sitting there on his bike and he just yelled at me and said ‘Free Palestine!’ like a bark.”
Shloimy — who suffered a cut on his right leg — said he tried to chase the suspect, who pedaled away on the bike.
Mohamed Habachi, 23 was slapped with hate crime charges in connection to the unprovoked Nov. 22 attack, cops said. NYPD“I’m Orthodox Jewish, and I see when someone chants that and throws a rock at me, it’s an antisemitic hate assault in this beautiful free country we are living,” recalled the victim, who police said was wearing “traditional religious attire” at the time of the assault.
“He definitely targeted me,” Shloimy said of the suspect. “In fact, there were other people standing in the vicinity. They were not Jews and he wasn’t doing anything to them.”
The city has seen a surge in antisemitic crimes since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in early October, according to NYPD data.
Habachi allegedly yelled, “Free Palestine!” during the attack. NYPD“It’s just scary what’s happening,” Shloimy said, adding that the rise in such crimes had left him feeling “very unsafe.”
“Someone minding his business and walking in the street in Brooklyn has no connection to anything happening elsewhere unless it’s a violent attacker and he just wants to attack,” he added.
Habachi, of Brighton Beach, was arraigned Wednesday morning and ordered held on $1,500 cash bail or $10,000 bond.
