Pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Musa is sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to savagely beating Jewish man Joseph Borgen in 2021 NYC hate crime mob attack

A pro-Palestinian activist has been sentenced to seven years in prison for brutally beating a Jewish man during an unprovoked hate crime mob attack in New York City in 2021.

Joseph Borgen, 31, was brutally attacked by a group of pro-Palestinian protesters in May 2021 while walking to a pro-Israel rally in Times Square while wearing a yarmulke.

Mahmoud Musa will now spend seven years in prison – more than District Attorney Alvin Bragg recommended – for his part in the horrific anti-Jewish abuse.

The attack came as tensions between Hamas and Israel flared in the Middle East two years ago.

But in light of the current war sparked by Hamas’ horrific terror attack on Israel on October 7 – and with incidents of violence and anti-Semitism against the Jewish people in New York City – Barry Borgen, the victim’s father, especially welcomed the news.

He said: ‘I’m glad they finally realized their mistakes. They see the atmosphere that is plaguing New York City with anti-Israel protests and anti-Semitism, they need to crack down, and I think this is just the beginning.”

Borgen is seen on the left in the hospital, and on the right in an interview a day after the attack

Borgen recalled in his victim impact statement Tuesday in Manhattan Criminal Court: “I was hanging on for dear life, I was in a fetal position and I was doing everything I could to get out alive.

‘I thought I might die… and not see my family again.

“In my opinion, if the police had not come to save my life, I would have died; that was Musa’s goal and that group’s goal.”

The Jewish man did not exchange words with the group before he was brutally chased, kicked to the ground, insulted, beaten and pepper-sprayed in broad daylight.

Judge Felicia Mennin sentenced Musa on Tuesday to seven years in prison plus five years of probation.

The convict apologized to Borgen and the Jewish community, but the victim said: “I think he was just sorry that he got caught.”

Musa’s lawyer, Lance Lazzaro, had asked for the minimum sentence for the attacker because he was 23 at the time of the ambush.

The lawyer also said he grew up in Brooklyn — in diverse, liberal New York City — in an atmosphere where relatives lived in Palestinian areas “like a prison.”

Video of the attack showed Borgen being left defenseless as he was kicked, punched and hit with crutches and flagpoles by a crowd of eight to 10 people

Borgen recalled lying on the floor in a fetal position, “trying to protect my head and face, literally just trying to get out of their lives.”

The Jewish man did not exchange words before he was brutally chased, kicked to the ground, hurled insults, beaten and pepper-sprayed in broad daylight.

Lazzaro added that Musa’s father died when he was young, lived in poverty growing up and “never had the right education to enable him to make the right choices.”

Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Junig, however, had asked for more than five years in prison for Musa, alleging he touched a security guard at Rikers Island while in custody and “showed no remorse whatsoever.”

In his own statement to the court, Musa said: “I understand that my behavior was unacceptable and take full responsibility for my actions and the consequences that followed.”

According to the judge, Musa’s participation and selection of a random person of the Jewish faith was planned, calculated and intentional.”

The phrase ‘has nothing to do with your beliefs, your freedom of speech, your identity or your national origin. It is imposed (because of your) actions… which will not be tolerated in any civilized society.”

The handcuffed Musa was led away after the conviction. Outside the courtroom, his supporters called the judge a “racist.”

Borgen told Hamodia outside court: “I am satisfied. “I think it was a serious, serious punishment for a serious, serious crime, and it sends a clear message that hate crimes … will not be treated with a slap on the wrist.”

Musa’s lawyer, Lance Lazzaro, had asked for the minimum sentence for the attacker because he was 23 years old at the time – a mature adult.

Borgen smiles after appearing in court. The climate in which his attacker was convicted is even more politically charged than when he was beaten in the summer of 2021

The victim speaks to reporters on Tuesday after the third of his five attackers was convicted

This was the third of five sentences imposed on suspects for this hate crime.

Faisal Elezzi, who threw two punches at Borgen, pleaded guilty in April 2023, and after a series of other arrests, he was sentenced to 60 days in jail.

Waseem Awawdeh, who was filmed beating Borgen with crutches, calling him a “dirty Jew” and pepper-spraying him, was initially offered a plea deal of six months in prison. Mennin rejected the deal and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

Awawdeh infamously said after his arrest, “I have no problem doing it again,” according to prosecutors, adding, “If I could do it again, I would do it again.”

The last two suspects yet to be sentenced are Mohammed Othman and Mohammed Said Othman.

In 2021, days after the brutal attack, Borgen spoke out in an interview with DailyMail.com, saying he thought he was going to die after a mob of pro-Palestinian protesters attacked him in Midtown Manhattan.

Borgen, an accountant who lives on the Upper East Side, was wearing a gray yarmulke and was walking toward a pro-Israel rally in Times Square around 6:30 p.m. when a young man wearing a black bandana began chasing him.

‘I turned around to try to figure out what was going on and before I knew it I was surrounded by a whole crowd of people physically attacking me, hitting me, kicking me, punching me, hitting me with crutches, hitting me with flagpoles,” he told DailyMail.com after being released from Bellevue Hospital.

Video of the attack showed Borgen lying defenseless on the ground as he was battered by the angry crowd outside 1604 Broadway.

“After I landed on the ground, I was literally in a fetal position trying to protect my head and face, literally just to get out of their lives,” Borgen said.

‘I thought I was going to die. I thought I was really going to die.’

Borgen said eight to 10 people took part in the beating and shouted anti-Semitic slurs such as: “You filthy Jew. We’re going to fucking kill you. Go back to Israel. Hamas is going to kill you.”

He said the most painful part happened towards the end when they pepper sprayed him.

‘I thought I was peeing because I felt a stream on my face. They sprayed or pepper-sprayed me for like a minute.”