NJ man, 3 Rutgers students arrested in ‘rowdy’ anti-Israel protest

🔻Anti-Israel protest at Rutgers
🔻4 people arrested
🔻2nd arrest in days for NJ man

NEW BRUNSWICK — Tensions flared during a pro-Palestinian protest setup outside a Jewish student union event at Rutgers University, leading to four arrests, authorities said.

Three Rutgers students and a 25-year-old Cranford man who is not a student or employee of the university were charged with rioting and other offenses after their arrests at the New Brunswick campus.

The same Union County man was arrested last week in Hudson County after making inflammatory pro-Palestinian comments during a Jersey City Council meeting.

On Tuesday evening, Rutgers Police had a designated protest area outside of Rutgers Hillel on the College Avenue Campus during a roundtable event with Congressman Josh Gottheimer.

Before 8 p.m., four protesters allegedly refused repeated requests from police to clear the public sidewalk.

Officers formed a protective line to try and restore access, but some protesters tried to breach the line, prompting police to say that the protest was unlawful and was over.

The individuals accused of breaching the line were Thomas Whitehead, 21-year-old Lexi Tassone, of Cresskill, 23-year-old Hanah Hassan, of Budd Lake and 24-year-old Jasmine Rodriguez, of Atlantic City.

Whitehead was charged with aggravated assault upon a law enforcement officer, riot and resisting arrest.

Tassone was charged with riot and resisting arrest.

Hassan and Rodriguez were charged with riot.

Read More: Rutgers clarifies protest policies as new academic year begins

“The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office along with the Rutgers University Police Department value free speech and support peaceful protests. However, the pursuit of these Constitutional Rights cannot interfere with Rutgers operations or deleteriously impact public safety,” Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Rutgers Police Chief Kenneth Cop said in a joint statement on Thursday.

Whitehead was being held at Middlesex County Jail, pending a detention hearing on May 6.

Second arrest in days for Cranford man

Just days earlier on April 23, Whitehead was arrested and charged in Hudson County, after causing a disturbance during the Jersey City Council meeting.

With very long hair pulled mostly over his face while also wearing sunglasses, he took the microphone about three hours and 20 minutes into the session, objecting to an Israeli flag-raising that happened the next day.

He ran through atrocities allegedly inflicted on innocent victims within the Palestinian territory during the ongoing conflict with Israel.

“I do not believe in your humanity, you are the byproduct of a racist, capitalist society that does not care about the well-being of people. All you respect is money and power,” Whitehead said from the podium to the Jersey City Council members.

A moment later, he added “If you continue in this flag raising and your general support of the state of Israel — myself and I believe the people standing here beside me we'll just make your lives absolutely 100% the most miserable as possible, by many means necessary.

"We will make it impossible for you to continue the support of Israel — maybe not tonight or tomorrow but we will make you stop," Whitehead said, before he began protest chants.

“From the river to the sea Palestine will be free. I still have some time left, so I think I'll just do some more chants — one two three four occupation no more. Five six seven eight Israel's a terrorist state,” Whitehead added.

At that point, the councilman leading the meeting interrupted him.

“Okay you you got to really relax there, you cannot be coming in here and threatening council like that,” to which Whitehead is heard on the microphone saying “F*** you” and walking away.

A police officer in the building was asked to escort Whitehead out, as a security threat.

He faces charges that include aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.

Whitehead is being represented by a public defender in both cases.

Anyone with additional information on the protest outside the Hillel event was asked to call Lieutenant Melvin Breton of the Rutgers University Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at 848-932-8025 or Sergeant Andrew Winter of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at 732-745-4178.

Whitehead is pursuing a doctorate in statistics and is a teaching assistant at Cornell University, according to his Linkedin profile.

He was previously a research assistant at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, while attending and graduating from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Whitehead graduated in 2017 from Cranford High School as Salutatorian of his class.

It is the forth time in the past year that Whitehead has been arrested, New Jersey Globe reported.

In June 2024, Whitehead paid a fine to settle a charge of obstructing a government function, the report said. He was also arrested for the same offense and resisting arrest in Newark on April 18, New Jersey Globe reported.

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