Photojournalist kettled while covering protest near NYC synagogue

Photojournalist Neil Constantine was held in a police kettle while covering a protest in New York, New York, on May 5, 2026.

The protest was taking place near a synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that was holding an event to promote real estate sales in Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the latter of which are widely believed to violate international law.

The New York City Police Department formed a buffer zone around the synagogue, prohibiting access to the block it was located on and directing pro-Palestinian and a smaller group of pro-Israel protesters, as well as press, onto surrounding avenues, according to news reports and journalists who spoke to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Constantine, who was freelancing for NurPhoto Agency and whose New York City press credential was clearly visible, told the Tracker that at one point, NYPD officers suddenly barricaded a sidewalk on nearby Third Avenue. The officers pushed metal barricades into protesters to prevent them from accessing an area that had previously been open.

Members of the press were standing behind the officers, documenting the police actions. In a video Constantine posted on Instagram, uniformed police and plainclothes public information officers can be seen placing metal barricades around a group of press, separating them from the area where the NYPD was pushing protesters back.

In the video, Constantine can be heard saying, “This is kettling,” and “We are being blocked in here right now.”

Constantine told the Tracker that when journalists asked to leave the area, they were either told that they couldn’t, or were given conflicting instructions about where to go by officers who were within a few feet of one another. In addition, the officers wouldn’t answer their questions about why they were keeping them there.

He said they were kept in the kettle for around 15 minutes.

The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.