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Teaneck, New Jersey, looked a little like the West Bank on Sunday. Whose fault that is depends on who you ask. But one thing is clear: It began with a real estate fair.

A few weeks ago, a group called My Home in Israel Real Estate announced plans to hold a series of real estate fairs encouraging Americans to buy property in Israel and the West Bank, where the Israeli government has confiscated land from Palestinians. Rich Siegel, a Jewish activist for Palestinian rights, vowed at a Teaneck Township Council meeting to organize a protest against My Home in Israel when it came to town.

My Home in Israel had rented out the local Keter Torah synagogue for its Teaneck exhibition. Fearing the worst, Teaneck’s government called in police from around Bergen County and closed the roads around the synagogue. On the day of the event, a heavy police presence separated protesters with Palestinian flags from counterprotesters with Israeli flags.

Although the protest organizers were focused on the real estate fair, the protest became a much broader airing of Israeli and Palestinian grievances, accompanied by plenty of boorish behavior on both sides. At one point, a pro-Israeli demonstrator yelled “Fuck your mother” in Arabic, and pro-Palestinian demonstrators shouted “Son of a bitch” back at him in Hebrew.

Two people were arrested for spraying an unknown liquid at people passing by the real estate fair, according a statement posted on Facebook by the Teaneck Police Department. A group of pro-Israeli counterprotesters confronts a pro-Palestinian protest in Teaneck, New Jersey on March 10, 2024. (Matthew Petti)

Teaneck, a suburb of New York City, is a famously diverse town. (It was the first in New Jersey to desegregate its schools .) And owing to its many immigrant communities, Teaneck has often dipped into foreign policy issues. In 2022, the town had a heated debate after its local Democratic Party chapter voted to condemn Hindu nationalism.

But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the most contentious issue in Teaneck politics, and every round of controversy seems to be an escalation over the previous one. In 2021, an Israeli flag-raising ceremony provoked a low-key counterprotest that barely made the local news. It was a far cry from Sunday’s loud clashes.

Earlier this year, the federal government got involved in Teaneck’s Israeli-Palestinian debate. After local high schoolers held a pro-Palestinian rally, township council members pushed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D N.J.) to condemn the “antisemitic, anti-Israel protest during school hours.” (I covered the controversy for The Intercept .) At Gottheimer’s urging, the Department of Education opened a Title VI investigation into the teens.

These disputes have allegedly descended into shit flinging, both metaphorical and literal. Unknown vandals have “repeatedly” thrown bags of feces onto the lawns of pro-Palestinian activists, claimed protest organizer Adam Weissman, who is Jewish and supports the Palestinian cause. Last year, after a school board member was accused of censoring pro-Israeli voices, she called one of her critics ” pencil dick ” on camera.

Siegel brought the real estate fair to protesters’ attention at a February 27 town council meeting . He pointed out that My Home in Israel was advertising properties in the West Bank. Siegel argued that, because Israel took the land through military conquest, selling such property would violate international law.

The website for My Home in Israel says the tour is “focusing on” several Israeli cities and three West Bank settlements: Neve Daniel, Efrat, and Ma’ale Adumim. Event organizer Gidon Katz told NorthJersey.com that to call any of the locations “stolen land is to deny the existence of the State of Israel.”

All three of those West Bank settlements were built at least partially on land that the Israeli government seized from Palestinian farmers or shepherds after conquering the West Bank in 1967. Last month, the U.S. State Department reiterated its position that the settlements are an illegal land grab . Last week, the Israeli army declared an additional four square kilometers outside of Ma’ale Adumim to be “state land.”

Siegel argued that the war in Gaza, which has left Teaneck residents “in deep mourning,” has made it an especially bad time to hold the exhibition.

“What this real estate event is going to do is it’s going to fan the flames,” he said. “If it goes forward, there will be a demonstration. I know there’s going to be a demonstration because I’m going to organize it. It will be very well attended.”

A video of Siegel’s speech, reposted by the Instagram page Teaneck for Palestine, quickly went viral . Amazon Labor Union leader Chris Smalls shared a video of Siegel, and the news channel AJ+ ran its own interview with Siegel. It would be a well-attended protest indeed.

On the day of the real estate fair, security politely turned me away at the door, stating that news media would not be allowed inside. So instead, I spoke to pro-Israeli counterprotesters who had gathered along the protesters’ planned route.

Though they were eager to share their general feelings on the conflictthat Israel wanted peace and the Palestinian cause was violentthey were far more shy about defending the real estate sale on the merits. When I pressed them on the question, several pro-Israeli demonstrators argued that governments had the right to take land by force.

“There was a war, and they [Palestinians] lost,” said a man named Jacob, who did not provide his last name. “I’m sorry, but that’s the entire world.”

A woman named Julie, who also did not give her last name, said she supported a two-state solution, which meant that Palestinians could have an independent nation-state alongside Israel. But she insisted that Palestinian land in the West Bank was “disputed property. It’s not property that belongs to them.”

When I asked her about specific land confiscations, Julie called over her friend Dave, who told me that the West Bank is “ours. It’s biblical land. Go and read the Bible.” A third woman who was with him added that “wars happen everywhere. Borders have changed all the time.” Then she insisted that she has many “Arab friends.”

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian demonstrators were gathering at the Teaneck Armory, a public park 1.4 miles away from the synagogue. Alice Golim, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace who helped organize the protest, held a banner that said “Palestine is not for sale” in Hebrew. She told me that “selling land in the occupied territories is morally a shame.” Two members of Jewish Voice for Peace walk ahead of a protest in Teaneck, New Jersey on March 10, 2024. (Matthew Petti)

 

Bergen County Jewish Action Committee President Emma Horowitz had earlier told NorthJersey.com that “the idea of protesting a synagogue should be something that shocks all of us.” When I asked Golim about that, she called it “awkward” that the real estate fair was being held in a house of worship.

In addition to opposing the sale of Palestinian land, Golim wanted the Israeli government to hear that there will be “no business as usual until they cease what they’re doing in Gaza, work to have the hostages released, and allow humanitarian aid.”

Some supporters had a more hardline anti-Israel message. Protesters chanted “We don’t want no two states, we want 48,” referring to the lands that became Israel after its 1948 independence war. A woman wearing a Palestinian scarf held up a banner that said “From the river to the sea, there will be no Israeli.” She declined to answer my questions.

Weissman told me the sign was not an officially approved part of the protest. But, unprompted, he began to defend its message. “No Palestinian will say that they believe Palestine should be cleansed of Jews,” he said. “If you talk to Jews in Palestine who are critical of Israel, they don’t call themselves Israelis, they call themselves Palestinian Jews.”

He cited the example of Neturei Karta, a Jewish group that rejects the State of Israel on fundamentalist religious grounds. Many mebers live in Jerusalem and fly Palestinian flags . Their beliefs are considered fringe in both Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

As the protest moved from the armory towards the real estate fair, a long line of police cars kept the protesters and counterprotesters separated. The pro-Palestinian protest organizers, who wore reflective vests, intervened several times to prevent angry protesters from going over the pro-Israeli side.

The two sides spent the half-hour march flinging taunts at each other across the police line. A pro-Palestinian protester held up a sign that said “There’s plenty of land in hell.” A group of pro-Israeli counterprotesters chanted “human shields” while a group of protesters held up photos of fallen Palestinian children.

At a few points, the protest looked like it was going to cause clashes with locals in their own homes.

When a local started to film the protest from his house, a man draped in a Palestinian flag walked up to his driveway and started to yell, “Come outside, bitch!” Organizers talked the protester down. “Let them film,” Weissman said. “What do we have to hide?”

Later, the same scene repeated on the other side. A local shouted “Free Palestine” from her window, and a group of counterprotesters wearing Israeli flags stepped onto her lawn. “Free what? Why don’t you come outside!” one of them shouted. After a few seconds, they apparently got bored and walked away.

At the end of the day, that was the difference between Teaneck and the West Bank. For all the strong feelings and even personal connections that Teaneck residents had towards the region, everyone involved could choose to walk away.

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Stars’ Hintz remains game-time call for Game 4

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Stars' Hintz remains game-time call for Game 4

EDMONTON, Alberta — Dallas Stars forward Roope Hintz remains a game-time decision ahead of Game 4 of the Western Conference Final on Tuesday.

The club’s top skater has been sidelined since Game 2 in the series when he took a slash to the left leg from Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse. Hintz took part in warmups before Game 3 on Sunday but exited early and was ruled out. He was back on the ice for Dallas’ optional practice on Monday and told reporters he was “feeling good” and “trying to do everything I can” to get back in for Game 4.

It was early in the third period of Game 2 when Hintz — parked in front of the Oilers’ net — shoved Nurse from behind, and the Oilers’ blueliner responded by swinging his stick at Hintz’s leg. Hintz was down on the ice for several minutes after that before being helped off by Lian Bichsel and Mikael Granlund.

Nurse received a two-minute penalty for the slash on Hintz but no supplementary discipline from the league. The blueliner addressed the incident for the first time Tuesday, explaining it didn’t come with malicious intent.

“I was backing up to net and I got shot in the back. And I think it was just a natural reaction [to respond],” Nurse said. “It’s probably a play that everyone in this room, whether you’re a net-front guy or D man, probably happens a dozen, two dozen times in a year. It’s unfortunate that I must have got [Hintz] in a bad spot. You don’t want to go out there and hurt anyone. But it was just one of those plays that happens so often.”

Having Hintz unavailable hurt the Stars in Game 3, a 6-1 drubbing by the Oilers that put Dallas in a 2-1 hole in the best-of-7 series. Hintz is the Stars’ second-leading scorer in the postseason, with 11 goals and 15 points through 15 games. He was hopeful when taking warmups Sunday that he’d feel good enough to get back in but a quick discussion with the training staff made it clear he wasn’t ready.

Coach Pete DeBoer has since classified Hintz’s status as day-to-day.

“Of course you want to go every night, but sometimes you just can’t,” said Hintz. “I don’t know how close I [was to playing]. But I have played many years [and I] know when it’s good and when it’s not. I should be good to know that [when] it comes to that decision.”

The Oilers will have some lineup changes of their own to sort through in Game 4. Connor Brown is out after he took a hit from Alexander Petrovic in Game 3; he’ll be replaced by the incoming Viktor Arvidsson. Calvin Pickard — injured in Edmonton’s second-round series against Vegas — will return to back up for Stuart Skinner. And Edmonton continues to wait on defenseman Mattias Ekholm, who is getting closer to coming back from a lower-body injury.

Puck drop for Game 4 is 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

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‘That’s wonderful’: Canes finally see ECF skid end

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'That's wonderful': Canes finally see ECF skid end

SUNRISE, Fla. — Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin is happy to never get another question about his team’s record-setting NHL playoff losing streak.

“Wonderful. That’s wonderful,” he said after Carolina’s 3-0 win over the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night. “The guys in here worked hard tonight and that’s all you can ask for.”

The Hurricanes avoided a sweep by the Panthers, sending the series back to Raleigh, North Carolina, for Game 5 on Wednesday night. In the process, Carolina snapped a 15-game losing streak in the conference finals — the longest losing streak by a team in a playoff round other than the Stanley Cup Final in NHL history.

The Hurricanes’ last win in the Eastern Conference finals was in Game 7 against the Buffalo Sabres in 2006, a game that saw current Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour score the winning goal.

“It’s been a story. So, yeah, it’s nice to not have to talk about that [anymore],” Brind’Amour said.

When the streak began in 2009, Carolina captain Jordan Staal was helping the Pittsburgh Penguins to a conference finals sweep of the Hurricanes. He said the win over Florida in Game 4 showed how much pride was in the Canes’ locker room, as they refused to allow the Panthers to end their season.

“There’s a lot of guys that didn’t want to go home,” Staal said. “We know we have a huge hill to climb here. We’ve got a great team on the other side that is going to come back with a better effort. It’s a great challenge.”

Florida coach Paul Maurice, whose team had a chance to advance to a third straight Stanley Cup Final with a victory, gave credit to the Hurricanes for a solid and disruptive game while acknowledging that his team could have gotten to its own game better.

“I haven’t been nearly as down on that hockey team as you fine people have been over the last three games, and I won’t be as down on my team tonight,” he said. “[The Hurricanes] were good. They had good sticks. They had good quickness. You see that happen more often when the possessor of the puck’s feet are not moving.”

Three factors changed the vibe for Carolina in Game 4.

Goalie Frederik Andersen had his second shutout of the postseason after being pulled in Game 2 and benched for Game 3. Andersen was 7-2 with a .937 save percentage and a 1.36 goals-against average in nine playoff games before facing Florida. In two games against the Panthers, he gave up nine goals on 36 shots (.750, 5.54). Andersen had given up just 12 goals in his previous nine postseason games.

In Game 4, he was a great last line of defense, stopping all 20 shots.

After the game, Andersen declined to discuss being benched.

“I don’t really want to talk about my feelings. It’s not about that. It’s about the team and trying to put the best lineup on the ice that they feel like gets the job done. So I’m ready for when I’m called upon and glad to be able to play,” he said.

Andersen played a key role in another factor: the Carolina penalty kill. The Panthers were 4-for-5 on the power play in the first two games of the conference finals. The Hurricanes killed off four power plays in each of the past two games.

“Our goalie was great when he needed to be. The penalty kill was phenomenal,” Brind’Amour said. “We gave ourselves a chance, and that’s all we can ask.”

Perhaps most crucially, the Hurricanes scored the first goal. Carolina is now 6-0 when scoring first and 3-5 when it trails first in these playoffs. In the regular season, the Hurricanes were 30-7-2 when scoring first and 17-23-3 when trailing first.

They scored first and then played the type of close, low-scoring game they excel at. As winger Taylor Hall said before Game 4: “We’re thinking about winning the game 1-0. If it’s close, then we’re in a good spot.”

“It’s been a story. So, yeah, it’s nice to not have to talk about that [anymore].”

Rod Brind’Amour on Carolina snapping 15-game losing streak in conference finals

Forward Logan Stankoven opened the scoring at 10:45 of the second period, giving Carolina its first lead of the series. Rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin made a terrific backhand pass across the neutral zone to spring Stankoven ahead of the Panthers’ defense, and he beat goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for his fifth goal of the playoffs.

Stankoven said he called for the pass from Nikishin, who was playing in his third postseason game.

“The play happened so fast and it was a great feed by him to make that play off the turnover. It all starts with him,” said Stankoven, who was acquired from the Dallas Stars in the Mikko Rantanen deadline trade.

It remained 1-0 until Sebastian Aho and Staal added empty-net goals in the last 2:11 for the 3-0 win.

Slavin said Game 4 was in the Carolina’s comfort zone.

“A thousand percent. It was 1-0 up until the end there. You can’t get any tighter than that,” he said.

With that, the Hurricanes ended their historic losing streak and turned their attention to making more NHL history. Only four teams in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs have rallied to win a best-of-seven series after trailing 3-0, although two have done it in the past 15 years (Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 and Los Angeles Kings in 2014).

“You watched the way we played tonight. Everyone put their heart on the line,” Slavin said. “We know we’ve got a good group in here. We know we’ve got all the pieces. We just have to bring it every night.”

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ZKPs can prove I’m old enough without telling you my age

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<div>ZKPs can prove I'm old enough without telling you my age</div>

<div>ZKPs can prove I'm old enough without telling you my age</div>

Opinion by: Andre Omietanski, General Counsel, and Amal Ibraymi, Legal Counsel at Aztec Labs

What if you could prove you’re over 18, without revealing your birthday, name, or anything else at all? Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) make this hypothetical a reality and solve one of the key challenges online: verifying age without sacrificing privacy. 

The need for better age verification today

We’re witnessing an uptick in laws being proposed restricting minors’ access to social media and the internet, including in Australia, Florida, and China. To protect minors from inappropriate adult content, platform owners and governments often walk a tightrope between inaction and overreach. 

For example, the state of Louisiana in the US recently enacted a law meant to block minors from viewing porn. Sites required users to upload an ID before viewing content. The Free Speech Coalition challenged the law as unconstitutional, making the case that it infringed on First Amendment rights.

The lawsuit was eventually dismissed on procedural grounds. The reaction, however, highlights the dilemma facing policymakers and platforms: how to block minors without violating adults’ rights or creating new privacy risks.

Traditional age verification fails

Current age verification tools are either ineffective or invasive. Self-declaration is meaningless, since users can simply lie about their age. ID-based verification is overly invasive. No one should be required to upload their most sensitive documents, putting themselves at risk of data breaches and identity theft. 

Biometric solutions like fingerprints and face scans are convenient for users but raise important ethical, privacy, and security concerns. Biometric systems are not always accurate and may generate false positives and negatives. The irreversible nature of the data, which can’t be changed like a regular password can, is also less than ideal. 

Other methods, like behavioral tracking and AI-driven verification of browser patterns, are also problematic, using machine learning to analyze user interactions and identify patterns and anomalies, raising concerns of a surveillance culture.

ZKPs as the privacy-preserving solution

Zero-knowledge proofs present a compelling solution. Like a government ID provider, a trusted entity verifies the user’s age and generates a cryptographic proof confirming they are over the required age.

Websites only need to check the proof, not the excess personal data, ensuring privacy while keeping minors at the gates. No centralized data storage is required, alleviating the burden on platforms such as Google, Meta, and WhatsApp and eliminating the risk of data breaches. 

Recent: How zero-knowledge proofs can make AI fairer

Adopting and enforcing ZKPs at scale

ZKPs aren’t a silver bullet. They can be complex to implement. The notion of “don’t trust, verify,” proven by indisputable mathematics, may cause some regulatory skepticism. Policymakers may hesitate to trust cryptographic proofs over visible ID verification. 

There are occasions when companies may need to disclose personal information to authorities, such as during an investigation into financial crimes or government inquiries. This would challenge ZKPs, whose very intention is for platforms not to hold this data in the first place.

ZKPs also struggle with scalability and performance, being somewhat computationally intensive and tricky to program. Efficient implementation techniques are being explored, and breakthroughs, such as the Noir programming language, are making ZKPs more accessible to developers, driving the adoption of secure, privacy-first solutions. 

A safer, smarter future for age verification

Google’s move to adopt ZKPs for age verification is a promising signal that mainstream platforms are beginning to embrace privacy-preserving technologies. But to fully realize the potential of ZKPs, we need more than isolated solutions locked into proprietary ecosystems. 

Crypto-native wallets can go further. Open-source and permissionless blockchain-based systems offer interoperability, composability, and programmable identity. With a single proof, users can access a range of services across the open web — no need to start from scratch every time, or trust a single provider (Google) with their credentials.

ZKPs flip the script on online identity — proving what matters, without exposing anything else. They protect user privacy, help platforms stay compliant, and block minors from restricted content, all without creating new honeypots of sensitive data.

Google’s adoption of ZKPs shows mainstream momentum is building. But to truly transform digital identity, we must embrace crypto-native, decentralized systems that give users control over what they share and who they are online.

In an era defined by surveillance, ZKPs offer a better path forward — one that’s secure, private, and built for the future.

Opinion by: Andre Omietanski, General Counsel, and Amal Ibraymi, Legal Counsel at Aztec Labs.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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