An Israeli beauty queen who served as a frontline soldier had a knife pulled on her while being berated as a “little Zionist” in New York City as she urged students to have “peaceful conversations” about Gaza, according to footage of the failed “social experiment.”
Miss Israel Noa Cochva teared up on Instagram after she was repeatedly blasted with anti-Israel vitriol while carrying a sign reading, “I am an [Israel Defense Forces] soldier. Ask me anything” in the protester-packed Washington Square Park near New York University’s campus Monday.
At one point, a woman approached Cochva and her cameraman and whipped out a knife — then cursed and lunged at them while growling, “little Zionist!” according to video on Instagram.
“She pulled a knife on us and we got so scared we actually ran away,” Cochva told The Post.
“That woman, it looked like she was really aiming to hurt us. I will never forget the hate in her eyes.”
Cochva, who was in town doing advocacy work for the pro-Israel group Facts for Peace, said her team reported the knife-wielding protester to police.
An NYPD source said Wednesday cops have no record of the frightening incident.
Of the roughly 100 people she encountered, about 70% spewed anti-Israel comments, often shouting or rolling their eyes, she said. Only one person asked her an earnest question.
“You’re a war criminal!” one man hissed, according to video on Instagram.
Another snapped, “How do you sleep at night?”
Cochva, 25, fired back: “I sleep really well because I know I’m on the right side of history.”
Cochva, who was crowned Miss Israel in 2021, served on the frontlines of the Israel-Hamas war as a combat medic.
She claimed to be carrying the sign to conduct a “social experiment” to see if students were “willing to have meaningful conversations” about the war.
“I’ve been to war and I know what it looks like from within,” she told The Post. “But none of them wanted to talk or listen.”
“It’s an awful thing to see what’s going on at the universities,” she said. “It’s hard to see a generation of future leaders not even open to asking questions.”
“You’re getting your information from TikTok instead of real-life people who have been to war,” she said. “To me that’s ignorance.”During the stunt, an apparent student told her, “This is stupid, y’all should go home.”
“I don’t think there can be peace now,” another fumed.
She later posted footage of her reaction to the heated criticism.
“The amount of hate that people had for me today … I was just trying to have peaceful conversations with them,” she said in tears.
She claimed that during her time on the front lines she acted like “the opposite of a war criminal.”
“I took an oath to save everyone’s life. I treated Palestinians. I treated terrorists. I treated everyone in Gaza,” she said.
As she held the sign in the park, other passersby praised her saying, “I just want to thank you” and “I’m with your people.”
An American military officer also stopped to chat with her about the sense of purpose she gained from serving her country.
On March 30, Cochva was smashed in the face with the butt of a protest placard at an anti-Israel rally in Times Square.
The scuffle left her with a black eye but she ultimately decided not to press charges.
Additional reporting by Steven Vago
