Some NYC residents feel unwelcome by pro-Palestinian events staged at community garden

They’re planting hate.A community garden in Ridgewood, Queens, has morphed into a group of pro-Palestinian green thumbs who grow “Poppies for Palestine” and host “Free Palestine” poster making events.Sara Schraeter-Mowers told The Post she can’t remember the last time she felt welcome in her own neighborhood, where she’s lived for 18 years.She blamed the Sunset Community Garden, in part, for “creating an environment” in Ridgewood “that’s very hostile towards me and my family.”Jewish Ridgewood residents are now afraid to go dig in the dirt at the garden, said Schraeter-Mowers, a teacher whose cousin was killed at the Nova Festival massacre on Oct.

7.Schraeter-Mowers said she was profoundly offended by a July 28 post to the garden’s Instagram page, showing a painting that had been created during the “Free Palestine” arts and crafts event.The painting featured the words “From the River to the Sea,” an anti-Semitic phrase calling for the destruction of Israel.“They’re hosting events specifically designed to promote hatred toward Jewish people,” Schraeter-Mowers said.

“They don’t care that they’re alienating certain members of the community, even while putting on the mask of being inclusive.”“I’d be safer in my home country [of Israel] than I am here,” Schraeter-Mowers added.“I basically feel like we’re not allowed to be part of the community.

I understand they’re trying to ensure people aren’t being discriminated against, but in doing so, they’re discriminating against an entire population in your community.”Steph Herold’s Instagram post accused the garden’s heads of pushing “out every Jew in the neighborhood who doesn’t conform to your narrow view of acceptable political opinion on Israel.”In June, the group’s “community agreements” were first posted to the social media platform, and later updated in August.They’re essentially 10 separate, brevity-challenged pledges all prospective...