ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA PREZ MORT KLEIN ONCE STOOD BY HIS USE OF 'FILTHY ARAB.’ OTHER SPEAKER LIKENED BLACK CRITIC TO MONKEY.

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One called Arabs "filthy" and another likened a black critic to a monkey. That didn't stop the NYPD from granting them a permit to speak on a stage in Times Square.

Mort Klein, the Zionist Organization of America national president, who defended his use of the phrase “filthy Arab,” is scheduled to speak in Times Square at an Israel Independence Day celebration in New York City on Monday evening.

Klein used the hate speech in a social media post on Twitter, now X, in 2018. The Sept. 16 post responded to another Tweet from pro-Palestinian news blog the Electronic Intifada questioning why the European Union was funding an Israeli firm with a factory in the occupied West Bank.

“There is no occupation in Judea and Samaria,” Klein Tweeted. “[W]here is your condemnation of the evil murders by your filthy Arab Islamist despicable brethren. The Nazis would be proud of the evil actions of murderous Arabs-murdering innocent Jews and Americans. You make the world worse."

Klein spent the next day defending himself on multiple follow-up Tweets, the Jewish newspaper the Forward reported at the time.

Klein also accused actor Natalie Portman of expressing opinions on Israel that “gives credibility and legitimacy to the ludicrous,false,nonsensical belief that beautiful women aren’t too bright.” 

He later apologized.

That same year, he called one progressive Jewish activist  a “pathetic frightened Jew” and another a “mindless idiot.” He stood by those remarks, the Forward reported.

Klein has also beefed with famous pro-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour, calling her a supporter of "radical Islamic terrorism" on Fox News in 2017. 

Reached by The Free Lance on Monday, Klein now says he regrets Tweeting “filthy Arab.”

“I never used it before never since,” Klein said. "I regret saying it.”

“I don't want to imply that every Arab is a murderer," the President of the Zionist Organization of America said.

Klein explained he fired off the angry Tweet “in a moment of grief” soon after a Jewish friend was murdered by an Arab teenager.

“Imagine if one of your closest friends were murdered,” Klein said. “You’d be in misery and grief.”

Read the full interview with Klein here.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a Jewish religious personage who promotes himself as "America's Rabbi," is also on the bill as master of ceremonies. 

Shmuley gained notoriety earlier this year for feuding with right-wing commentator Candace Owens. Owens is an outspoken critic of Israel's war against the Palestinians. In a Mar. 18 post on X, Rabbi Shmuley used racially-loaded terms that, in effect, called the Black-American Owens a monkey: "troglodyte, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal anti-Semitic, thug." 

Rabbi Boteach could be reached for comment, but Klein, whose group is sponsoring Monday evenings festivities, defended Shmuley.

“That’s not racist,” Klein claimed. “He can’t stand her.”

“Look I know Candace Owens,” Klein said. “I testified next to her. The things she has said is pure ignorance and bigotry against Jews. She’s a bigot. She’s an anti-Semitic bigot.”

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz is also scheduled to speak.

Dershowitz published an op-ed in the New York Post on Friday defending the killing of Palestinians civilians by Israel's military on the grounds that they are guilty of facilitating terrorism. 

"Yet who exactly are these 'civilians' and just how innocent are they?," he wrote.

The flier announcing the event asks attendees of the Israeli Independence Day celebration to obtain tickets from Eventbrite. The event runs from 5:30 to 9:00 pm, the posting says. It will occur on Broadway, between 41st and 42d streets.

Klein said he doesn’t know how many people will show up.

“I have no idea. You can never tell,” he said. “People are afraid. They’re afraid of being at a pro-Jewish, pro-Israel event because of what’s going on. Some people are nervous.”

Still, Klein said, “I thought we should have a public display of support for Israel since the whole world, especially the campuses, are attacking Israel with incredible lies.”

The City has had problems controlling "pop-up" events in the past.

Last summer, a computer give-away even in Union Square by Gamer Kai Cenat descended into chaos.

Both the NYPD and the Mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment.

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