Mayor Eric Adams on Monday defended the NYPD’s response to a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Brooklyn over the weekend and disagreed with assertions that officers were overly aggressive as they arrested protesters.

The protest in Bay Ridge Saturday was organized to recognize Nakba Day, which commemorates the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.

Videos from the demonstration showed violent clashes between police and protesters, with some demonstrators being pushed to the ground and struck repeatedly by officers.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said 41 people were arrested during the protest, adding that the demonstration “was not a peaceful protest by some.”

Daughtry said some protesters spit on and threw water at officers, lit “incendiary devices” and rode on the roof of an MTA bus. One-third of those arrested had “a prior arrest history for other non-peaceful protests,” he added.

Both Brooklyn City Councilman Justin Brannan, whose district includes Bay Ridge, and the head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, however, spoke out against the NYPD’s response, with Brannan saying he “saw no evidence of actions by protesters today that warranted such an aggressive response from the NYPD.”

In a social media post, Brannan said Nakba Day demonstrations have happened annually in Bay Ridge “for the past decade without incident.” He also speculated that NYPD leadership had issued “a ‘zero tolerance’ edict” that had “escalated everything and made it worse.”

In her own statement, NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman said the “aggressive escalation by the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group [Saturday] in Bay Ridge was a violation of New Yorkers’ right to speak out and risks chilling political expression.”

“NYCLU protest monitors witnessed violent arrests, protester injuries and even arrests of credential[ed] members of the press,” Lieberman said.

Responding to Brannan’s remarks during an interview on “Mornings On 1” Monday, Adams said he and Brannan “must have looked at two different protests.”

“We all have a right to protest. You don't have a right to ride on the top of a bus. You don't have a right to spit at police officers. You don't have a right to disobey lawful orders,” he said. “That was a complete disruption of the Bay Ridge community.”

“I take my hat off to the police department, how they handled an unruly group of people. And when we look at the number, over 30-something people who were arrested did not live in the Bay Ridge community. In some cases, did not even live in the city,” he added. “And so, job well done by the police department in dealing with a very volatile situation.”

The pro-Palestinian organization, Within Our Lifetime, joined "Inside City Hall" Monday evening to discuss the rally.

"Even this [rally] is historic to this moment because Bay Ridge is known to be a very safe, family-centered community," Abdullah Akl, an organizer with Within Our Lifetime, said. “So people just seeing this level of preemptive NYPD presence showed the community the NYPD wasn't here for a peaceful protest. If anything, the NYPD was here to arrest, [the] NYPD was here to brutalize, and nothing short of that."