WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department is suing pro-Palestinian organizations and demonstrators it accuses of intimidating Jewish worshipers at a New Jersey synagogue, using a U.S. law that has traditionally been used against people blocking access to abortion clinics.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in New Jersey federal court, alleges that a November protest against an event at a synagogue in West Orange, New Jersey, billed as a spiritual service and Israel real estate fair, escalated into violence.

Demonstrators physically assaulted some worshippers and chanted and used vuvuzelas – plastic trumpets sometimes used by soccer fans – to disrupt the event, according to the complaint.

The case was brought under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, a 1994 law that proh

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