Miss Israel Noa Cochva has been blasted as a ‘war criminal’ and had a knife pulled on her in New York while inviting people to ask her questions about being in the IDF.
The beauty queen filmed herself carrying a poster that said ‘I am an IDF soldier. Ask me anything’ around Washington Square Park on Monday.
One onlooker slammed Cochva telling the 25-year-old, ‘You are a war criminal.’ ‘How do you sleep at night,’ one person asked.
Cochva responded, ‘I sleep really well because I know that I’m in the right side of history.’
‘I heard there was a Zionist here,’ said a woman wearing a camouflage crop top and pants.
She then pulled out a knife and bite off the cover in front of Cochva saying she works on boat.
Miss Israel Noa Cochva filmed herself carrying a poster that said ‘I am an IDF soldier. Ask me anything’ around Washington Square Park on Monday
One woman pulled out a knife while approaching Cochva’s posse after saying ‘I heard there was a Zionist here’
The woman put her face in the camera saying ‘you little Zionist’ as the crew tries to backway.
‘This is f*****g stupid. You guys should go home,’ said one man. ‘I don’t think there can be peace now,’ another said.
An American Air Force soldier asked Cochva how she felt about being required to join the military at a certain age.
‘It’s the best thing ever. When I served my duty, I felt like I had a really big purpose,’ Cochva said. Many people approached the beauty queen and thanked her for her service.
Cochva posted the video to Instagram along with an emotional response to the critics
The woman put her face in the camera saying ‘you little Zionist’ as the crew tries to backway
One person told Cochva, ‘This is f*****g stupid. You guys should go home’
‘I’m with your people and I thank you for being so brave and showing that,’ a woman said.
Cochva posted the video to Instagram along with an emotional response to the critics.
‘The amount of hate that people had for me today. I was just trying to have peaceful conversations with them,’ she said.
‘But it’s a whole different experience to witness something like that. We can’t let things like this happen.’
‘I don’t think there can be peace now,’ another person told the beauty queen
Cochva was crowned Miss Israel in 2021 and serves in the Israel Defense Forces
Students and faculty at New York University descended on Washington Square Park in April protesting the Israel Hamas war.
College campuses have been rocked by pro-Palestinian protests with some schools canceling commencement addresses as the demonstrates grow anti-Semitic.
President Joe Biden condemned the ‘ferocious surge of antisemitism’ across the U.S. including on college campuses in Holocaust memorial speech on Tuesday.
‘As Jews around the world still cope with the atrocities and trauma of that day and its aftermath, we’ve seen a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world,’ the president said during remarks at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.
Biden defended Americans’ right to free speech but said violence had no place in the country.
‘There’s no place on any campus in America – any place in America – for antisemitism or threats of violence of any time – whether against Jews or anyone else,’ he said.
‘Destroying property – it’s not peaceful protest. It’s against the law. We’re not a lawless country. We’re civil society.’
‘We know scapegoating and demonizing any minority is a threat to every minority, and to the very foundation of our democracy.’