Footage from chaotic scenes show anti-Israel demonstrators assaulting Jewish woman; No arrests made.
By World Israel News Staff
Anti-Israel protesters gathered outside a synagogue in a Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles on Sunday, and violently assaulted counter-demonstrators and Jews caught in the fray.
The demonstrators targeted Adat Israel, a Sephardic synagogue in the mostly Orthodox Jewish Pico-Robertson district.
Obscuring their faces with masks and keffiyehs, the protesters prevented Jewish worshippers from entering the synagogue.
After being confronted by pro-Israel counter-demonstrators and Jewish locals, the anti-Israel protesters began violently assaulting those around them.
Footage circulating on social media from the chaotic scene showed masked anti-Israel protesters putting a Jewish woman in a headlock and shoving her to the ground.
Another video showed a man, who hid his face with a green scarf, hitting visibly Jewish passerby in an unprovoked attack.
Fights spilled out on to the street, as a neighborhood rabbi was seen trying to help a Jewish man being repeatedly punched by an anti-Israel demonstrator.
The anti-Israel protesters also used chemical irritants against those defending the synagogue, including pepper-spray and bear-spray. Some of the victims required medical treatment.
Do your message, spread your message, it’s the First Amendment. But when you’re pepper-spraying little girls, it’s messed up,” Mishah Klein, a Pico-Robertson resident, told ABC 7.
Despite clear video evidence depicting anti-Israel protesters obstructing entrances to the synagogue and assaulting Jews, no arrests were made.
In a statement, the LAPD clarified that one person had been detained and cited for “failure to disperse,” but stressed that they were not officially arrested.
Last week, LAPD did not arrest anti-Israel protesters who violently clashed with security guards outside of a theater hosting a fundraiser for President Joe Biden.
The lack of arrests may indicate that police officers are under orders not to detain anti-Israel protesters at demonstrations, despite their violent or illegal behavior.
Rabbi Hertzel Illulian told KCAL News that the protest “doesn’t belong” in front of a synagogue.
“I don’t think the Jewish would go in front of a mosque or the Christian people would go in front of a mosque to do such a thing,” he told the outlet.