Even in a city as progressive as New York, racism and xenophobia still persist. A recent incident is a stark reminder of that reality, as two Palestinian girls were targeted while calmly walking down the sidewalk. In a video shared by a Redditor, the girls, both wearing Palestinian headscarves, can be seen walking closely together. As they passed an INTROSTEM store, one of the store’s employees suddenly stepped toward them and shoulder-checked one of the girls without provocation.
The second Palestinian girl didn’t stay silent in the face of this blatant act of harassment. She quickly turned back and confronted the employees standing outside the New York shop. “What the f**k are you doing? Do you feel brave hitting a girl? Do you feel brave?” she demanded. One of the employees, who hadn’t been involved in the initial assault, responded dismissively by pointing to her own face and asking, “Why do you wear that thing on your face?”
Fortunately, the situation didn’t escalate further. The two parties eventually walked away from each other. The incident was coincidentally caught on video by a passing photographer who happened to be filming their walk. After witnessing what happened to the Palestinian girls, the photographer pulled out another camera to snap some photos, ensuring the moment was documented from multiple angles.
Of course, it didn’t take long for the incident involving the Palestinian girls to go viral on social media. The video quickly made its way to Reddit, where it received over six thousand upvotes and more than five hundred comments. One user shared their own unsettling experience, writing,
“We had an INTROSTEM store in my town. These people are crazy. They constantly harassed tourists. One crazy dude followed a woman to her house in the next town over. He yelled at her about how she couldn’t walk into his store and not buy anything. The same dude followed another local shopkeeper, harassing her about how she couldn’t walk past his store every day and not buy anything. She ended up going into a bar and asking for help.”
Another user noted that they frequently passed by the area and often saw employees trying to lure people inside. They said, “I honestly think it’s just a laundering front because, like I said, nobody is ever in that place.” However, they later edited their comment to add that the shop appeared to be closed that day, with no one outside or inside.
