Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has offered a sweetheart plea deal to a suspect charged in the brutal anti-Semitic beating of a Jewish man in Midtown, prosecutors confirmed.
Waseem Awawdeh — who defiantly said “I would do it again” after his arrest in the cowardly assault on Joseph Borgen near a pro-Israel rally in May 2021 — has gotten a six-month plea deal offer from the controversial Big Apple prosecutor.
That would be a slap-on-the-wrist compared to the up to 10 years he would face if convicted.
Awawdeh, 24, was part of a gang of brutes busted in the attack on Borgen, who was wearing a yarmulke as he walked to a pro-Israel rally in Midtown Manhattan.
Borgen, an Upper East Side accountant, said his attackers called him a “dirty Jew” and yelled “f–k Israel, Hamas is going to kill all of you” as they pummeled him on Broadway and West 49th Street on May 20, 2021.
“I felt a liquid being poured on my face, and at first I thought I was getting urinated on,” Borgen told The Post at the time.
“But it turned out I was getting Maced and pepper-sprayed,” he said. “My face was on fire. That pain was worse than the concussion and all the other stuff that followed.”
Awawdeh, of Brooklyn, Mahmoud Musa of Staten Island and Faisal Elezzi, also of Staten Island, were all charged with assault as a hate crime, harassment and gang assault.
At his arraignment, prosecutors said he told jailers he had no regrets.
“If I could do it again, I would do it again,” he said. “I have no problem doing it again.”
He has remained free on $10,000 bail while the case is pending.
Awawdeh’s lawyer, Peter Marc Frankel, confirmed the DA’s plea deal offer, which was first reported by The New York Sun.
“The six-month plea deal has been offered at this point,” Frankel told The Post Thursday. “No decisions has been made by [my] client on what to do. We have been in contact with the DA for over a year about this case.
“It’s complicated,” he said. “This is not the potential outcome I was looking for but this is their current position. I am going to discuss this with my client.”
The incident came amid high tensions between Jews and Palestinians, with several clashes in New York City during protests and demonstrations.
“It really is outrageous,” former state assemblyman Dov Hikind said on Thursday. “What do you have to do? Kill a jew to get justice? It seems like Jewish blood is cheap, especially with the Manhattan DA, a guy who clearly has greater pity for the perpetrator than the victim of the crime.
“This creep, this Jew hater, said he would do it again,” he added.
Bragg’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Doree Lewak
Source: New York Post
