An anti-Israel protester slugged a Jewish Columbia University student in the face, ranting about Hitler and the Nazis in an unhinged flag-snatching tantrum on Monday, police and the victim said.
Jonathan Lederer, 22, showed up to an anti-Israel protest outside the Ivy League school’s Morningside Heights campus with his brother when a keffiyeh-clad demonstrator snatched an Israeli flag out of the sibling’s hands, then decked him for stepping in, he told The Post.
The clash unfolded when Lederer — whose ancestors were killed in the Holocaust — was surrounded by protesters who accused him of being a baby killer for his support of the Jewish state, he recounted.
“I said, ‘No, I don’t. I actually want a two-state solution. I think there is too much death on both sides. I want peace,’” Lederer said he told the agitated mob.
But the demonstrators then seethed, “Jews have no history in the land. You stole our land,” according to Lederer, who studies computer science at the school.
One brute allegedly spewed more antisemitic venom — comparing Lederer to a Nazi and ranting, “You guys have done everything Hitler has done” before grabbing the flag away from his brother and taking off.
The brothers followed him, begging for their flag back.
“That’s when he turns around and punches me in the face, on the right side of my face,” the student said.
The violent protester then took off, fleeing northbound on Claremont Avenue, police said.
It’s the second time Lederer was attacked at a protest outside the university, he said.
In April, protesters hurled rocks, hitting him in the face after setting his Israeli flag on fire.
Lederer thinks little has changed at the university since then.
“They have no moral backbone,” he said of the school’s administration.
“They are trying to protect themselves with these half-measured statements,” he said, adding that the school should “derecognize” student-led anti-Israel “hate groups.”
Lederer, whose great-grandparents perished in the Holocaust, called the latest act of violence “twisted.”
“It flips anything factual on its head. I’m telling him I want peace and co-existence and he’s calling me a Nazi,” he added. “It’s very frustrating.”
Police released a video of the attacker wagging his finger at the victim prior to the assault.
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the crime.
