The three, who live in Asheville, included an elderly man with cancer.
Speaking to reporters about what had happened, Buckley said: "I just thought it would be safer to livestream what was happening.”
When one of the pro-Palestinian activists noticed it was being live-streamed, they announced it to the room.
Buckley told reporters that shortly after their presence was mentioned, someone grabbed her phone.
Monica Buckley talking to News 13 about what happened (Photo: News 13 screenshot)[Missing Credit]
She said: “I was just sitting there recording the people who were surrounding us, and a woman grabbed the phone and started running towards the door.”
When she tried to get her phone back, she was “attacked”, she said.
She added: “I jumped on her to get my phone back. There was a swarm of dozens of people that attacked me, and then Bob and David came to try to help me and then they swarmed and attacked also.
"They were hitting me, punching me, punching my wrists, stomping on my ankles. Somebody choked me with something."
Bob Campbell, who attended the event with Buckley told reporters that a man “grabbed me from the back and pushed me down on the floor so that’s when I told him, I said, 'You know I got cancer and I’m 80, you don’t have to do much, but he wouldn’t stop'.”
Moritz also said he tried to help the other two during the attack. “Bob and I both got up to defend her,” he said, “but it was just such a mob of people, they just started punching me. I had bruises on my head, I was fighting back, I kicked some people."
All three said they were set upon by two dozen people.
Moritz said: "We didn't want to provoke anything. We were there just to listen."
They told News 13 reporters that they went along to the session called "Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance" on Saturday to listen and learn about what was being said.
A spokesperson for Buncombe County government told reporters that a librarian called 911.
Moritz said he has filed a report with Asheville Police Department.
Buckley added: “This is a place where prosecuting this type of violence can actually start, and I think... Asheville should be known for that as opposed for being a place where terrorism and antisemitism is running rampant.”
