Democratic congressional nominee and former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was aggressively heckled by fellow protesters during an anti-RSS demonstration outside Madison Square Garden on August 29, after hard-left protesters accused him of being a “Zionist”.
Lander, a Jewish progressive Democrat running for the US House of Representatives from New York’s 10th Congressional District, had attended the demonstration to oppose the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) event at Madison Square Garden.
Earlier, joining hands with Khalistani supporter Pieter Friedrich, he had even publicly held a placard declaring “RSS KILLED GANDHI”, alongside the messages “MSG SAYS WELCOME” and “#RSSOutOfNYC”. However, his attempt to join the protest quickly turned into an episode of infighting, with protesters telling him to leave because of his continued identification as a liberal Zionist.
Despite his opposition to the RSS, Lander was confronted and heckled by protesters when he attempted to join the demonstration. Some protesters told him there was no place at the protest for a Zionist, even though Lander has been among the more outspoken progressive Jewish critics of Israel.
“You look like a scrotum, you filthy ballsack!” one protester shouted at Lander. Another called him a “ballsack Zionist” and accused him of being a “paid Zionist”, before telling him to “get out of here”.
Lander attempted to explain why he was at the demonstration.
“I am Brad Lander, the Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 10th District, and I came here today to join others and say no to RSS,” he told the protesters.
His explanation did little to ease the confrontation.
Appeasement never works with these people.
Watch how they eat their own — even after Brad Lander spewed all the self flagellating nonsense and hatred for the free Palestine death cult…they still attack him
— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) August 29, 2026
Lander had gone to the protest as an opponent of the RSS, had publicly campaigned against its presence in New York and had strongly criticised Israel. Yet that was not enough to make him one of their own. His identification as a “liberal Zionist” led some protesters to reject and heckle him. His Jewish identity was the point of hostility, exposing how leftists view even Jewish progressives who oppose the RSS and criticise Israel.
Over the past year, Lander has described the war in Gaza as “genocide”, called for an end to what he termed “American complicity” in the conflict and said he would not support additional US military aid to Israel at the time.
Yet Lander continues to describe himself as a liberal Zionist. He supports Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state and opposes the boycott movement against Israel.
It was this position that appeared to make him unacceptable to protesters at the anti-RSS demonstration.
The confrontation therefore exposed an increasingly stark fault line: for leftists, opposition to Israel and support for the Palestinian cause were not enough. A Jewish politician who still supports Israel’s existence as a Jewish state would be branded a Zionist and pushed out of an ostensibly anti-RSS protest.
The irony was difficult to miss. Lander had carried a placard accusing the RSS of killing Gandhi and demanding that the organisation be kept out of New York. He ended up being told to “get out” by protesters on his own side of the demonstration.
Well you can’t say @bradlander was not warned.
We have been warning Americans about the hate filled players like @Hindus4HR and @FriedrichPieter and assorted Khalistani activists. Brad joined them in their favorite game–of hounding proud American Hindus and telling them to… https://t.co/HH9p73vsuJ
— CoHNA (Coalition of Hindus of North America) (@CoHNAOfficial) August 30, 2026
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