Swastika stickers found on Goldman Sachs building, police investigating

Stickers of a defaced Israeli flag with a swastika in it found on the Goldman Sachs building has police investigating as a possible hate crime.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is investigating after stickers showing the Israeli flag emboldened with swastikas appeared on the Goldman Sachs building Friday night.

Police say around 10:40pm video surveillance shows a man, about 30 years old, 5-foot-8, 150 pounds with “curly/wavy” hair and a woman scrawling graffiti on the 44-story building, and then running eastbound, according to the New York Post.

The stickers are said to have shown an Israeli flag with a swastika as part of the flag, stuck to the ground level pillar outside the high rise building.

The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the vandalism and the NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the New York Post.

New York City has been the site of many Anti-Semitic hate crimes this year, especially since tensions have increased between Israeli and Palestinians. One man was arrested after committing an alleged hate crime on a Jewish man last month. The NYPD tweeted that the man, identified as 23-year-old Waseem Awawdeh, was charged "hate crime assault 2, gang assault 2, menacing, and criminal possession of a weapon."

Awawdeh was arrested as part of a rally which saw pro-Palestinian activists hurling anti-Semitic expletives at Jewish onlookers and lobbing incendiary devices at police and Jewish people who gathered in the area.

In the wake of the violent actions of pro-Palestinian demonstrators Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a statement saying that he does "unequivocally condemn these brutal attacks on visibly Jewish New Yorkers and we will not tolerate anti-Semitic violent gang harassment and intimidation."