In a video that has gone viral online, two brothers who were demonstrating against the war in Gaza are seen being dragged violently inside the Egyptian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City and then handcuffed by police earlier this week.
Their parents named the siblings as Ali Elsamak, 15, and Yasin ElSammak, 22, stating that they are both citizens of the United States.
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Husam Khaled, a protester who captured the event on camera on Wednesday, claimed that after trying to chain lock the Egyptian Mission’s doors, he fled the scene but came back when he saw the brothers hadn’t. Khaled claimed that in case he was caught and lost his phone, he had requested Yasin, who had brought his brother with him, to record the demonstration.
Khaled provided NBC News with video footage of the brothers being seized and thrown to the ground outside the building. A bystander can be heard yelling and requesting assistance, saying, “They’re bringing the kids inside the building.”
According to Khaled, Ali was trapped against a wall and Yasin was hit in the neck with a chain.
Khaled remarked, “I told them it was me, let them go, they didn’t do anything.”
In a another video, Khaled asks one of the men who comes out of the building if he is doing as Egypt’s foreign affairs and immigration minister, Badr Abdelatty, has instructed him to do in Arabic. “Yes,” the man replies.
After a number of Arabic-speaking news sites released a video purporting to show a leaked phone conversation between Abdelatty and Egyptian ambassador to the Hague Emad Hanna, tensions between demonstrators and Egyptian embassy staff have escalated. Abdelatty appears to be giving diplomatic personnel instructions to seize and drag demonstrators inside their buildings and summon the police, according to the video, which NBC News has not independently confirmed.
Requests for comment from NBC News were not immediately answered by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Egyptian Embassy in Paris, Rome, or the Hague, or the Egyptian Mission to the United Nations.
Khaled posted footage from Wednesday that show officers from the New York Police Department entering the building and then exiting with the two brothers in handcuffs.
Yasin was charged with assault, according to police, while a 15-year-old was charged with both assault and strangulation in relation to the injuries sustained by two employees of the Egyptian Mission. According to the department, two employees of the Egyptian delegation declined on-scene medical treatment. Ali’s father has recognized him as the charged youngster, although the police did not name the minor.
According to the authorities, Yasin had no past criminal history. The records of minors cannot be disclosed by authorities.
The ambassador of the building’s nation must grant authorization for officials to access foreign embassies and consulates. According to the NYPD spokeswoman, they are also able to react in emergency situations, such a fight in progress.
Ali’s accusations were withdrawn in family court, while Yasin’s were downgraded to a misdemeanor, according to the brother’s parents, who were not present at the demonstration. They said that following the event, Yasin had trouble breathing and that his throat was swelled.
According to their father, Akram ElSammak, “Our sons were abducted and beaten on American soil, and then the United States of America officers came to arrest my sons.”
American citizens ElSammak and his wife Olga, who emigrated from Egypt and Russia decades ago, respectively, and reared their kids in New York City, said their boys participated in the demonstration to demand aid for Gaza’s youngsters.
According to Akram ElSammak, that is my children’s crime. Let the kids eat, take some medicine, and drink some water, they say.
According to a statement posted on social media Wednesday by Within Our Lifetime, a community organization in New York City organized by Palestinians, the incident signifies the expansion of Egypt’s repression campaign beyond of its own boundaries and into the United States.
Throughout the conflict, Egypt, Qatar, and the United States have mediated ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Egypt has been criticized by some for permitting Israel to impose travel restrictions on the Egypt-Gaza border, so exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe. According to Abdellaty, Egypt has denied the allegation, claiming that Israel alone is to blame for the 5,000 assistance trucks that have been prevented from entering Rafah from the Sinai.
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