From today's corrected opinion by Judge Andrew Carter (S.D.N.Y.) in Horowitz v. AJP Educ. Found., Inc., the plaintiff's allegations:
Horowitz is a documentarian and civil rights activist. AMP [American Muslims for Palestine] is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation …. Defendant NSJP [National Students for Justice in Palestine] is an unincorporated association … that was created and is operated by AMP.
AMP was founded for the direct purpose of serving certain political aims in the United States. Defendant NSJP is AMP's on-campus brand, a project created to manage and control a network of chapter and affiliate organizations across hundreds of campuses on behalf of AMP so that they can be used to serve its political aims.
In April 2024, AMP and NSJP began a largescale operation coordinating, guiding, and commanding NSJP's network of on campus chapter to engage in protests by building encampments to participate in civil disobedience with the goal of making certain political demands. One example of these activities occurred on April 24, 2024, when AMP's Executive Director, Osama Abuirshaid, visited an encampment at Columbia University …. Abuirshaid made a fiery speech to the encampment protestors and declared to the NSJP protestors that there was a "war" on them in America. He also stated that there was a war against their First Amendment rights, and that police were repressing them.
Abuirshaid shouted that AMP and the protestors were "going to continue to fight" until they achieved their political goals. Abuirshaid's visit to NSJP's Columbia chapters and affiliates and their encampment coincided with the creation of the encampment at CUNY the following day—which the Columbia chapters assisted with….
On April 25, 2024, over 200 members of NSJP's chapters and affiliates at CUNY gathered to set up an encampment in a public square at CUNY's campus at the City College of New York ("CCNY"). In the late afternoon on April 26, 2024, Plaintiff Horowitz entered CCNY's campus to film a video. He approached the encampment with an American flag.
A mob of protestors from the encampment surrounded him. After swarming from the encampment to surround Horowitz, the mob immediately ripped the American flag from Horowitz hands, smashed it on the ground, and began beating him. The attack occurred during the middle of the day, in broad daylight, in full view of the surrounding campus, the encampment, and hundreds of onlookers. The mob's members kicked, punched, and headbutted Horowitz, aiming strikes at his throat, spleen, and kidney.
