A woman was arrested and charged with a hate crime assault after she allegedly accused a man wearing a traditional Arab scarf of supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas and threw her cell phone and hot coffee at him and his 18-month-old son this month, authorities say.
Hadasa Bozakkaravani, 48, was arraigned Tuesday after turning herself in, according to court documents. She pleaded not guilty to all charges, the documents show.
Ashish Prashar, 40, told CNN he was at a Brooklyn basketball court with his son on November 6 when a woman charged at the pair and hurled slurs at them, threw her coffee at him and eventually hit him.
The incident comes as Muslims, Palestinians and Jews in the US say they are becoming increasingly fearful of hate-motivated attacks as war between Israel and Hamas rages in the Middle East. Israel declared a military offensive against Hamas after the militant group’s surprise attack on the country on October 7, which left 1,400 people dead. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, drawing from sources in the Hamas-controlled territory.
Prashar, who said he was wearing a traditional Arab scarf known as a keffiyeh, said the woman became upset after his toddler started to interact with her young son in what Prashar believed to be a lighthearted moment between the children.
Prashar said he reached for his phone to record the screaming woman, hoping that the camera would force her to calm down. But the woman became violent upon seeing the camera, he said.
Bozakkaravani, whose attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment, is due back in court on January 24, according to court records.
“My whole goal was to protect my son,” Prashar told CNN this month. “There was disbelief in the beginning when she called me a terrorist. But then it got worse, and it got more serious. I needed to protect my son and keep him at a safe distance.”
In video that Prashar captured on his cell phone, the woman is seen throwing her phone at Prashar. He said that was moments before she threw a cup of hot coffee at him and his son.
“She threw her hot coffee in my face,” Prashar said. “I had just put my son down. It would have hit him in the face. I was mind blown.”
A witness went to check on Prashar, prompting the woman to grab her child and leave, he said.
Prashar’s son was unharmed, but Pashar said he received scrapes and bruises from the woman’s open-hand blows and attempts to rip his phone away while he recorded.
“I want it to stop,” Prashar said. “I don’t want a child to be stabbed 23 times in Illinois. I don’t want my child nearly scolded by hot coffee and I don’t want this to happen to another human being. I see those kids in Gaza and I see my child.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the incident and called it emblematic of post-9/11 hysteria.
“This attack on a father with his young son is absolutely despicable and we urge law enforcement authorities to be swift and thorough in investigating and apprehending a suspect,” Afaf Nasher, executive director of CAIR’s New York chapter, said. “These bigoted attacks must stop.”
Nationally, CAIR says it has received 1,283 complaints of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since Hamas raided Israel on October 7 - a 216% increase compared to the same time last year.
Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong day of the reported encounter at the basketball court. It was November 6.
