As demonstrators scuffle outside a synagogue in Los Angeles, police patrols increased

As demonstrators scuffle outside a synagogue in Los Angeles, police patrols increased
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Increased police presence is being seen outside the synagogue that served as the focal point of violent protests in West Los Angeles over the weekend.

Pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protestors clashed on Sunday outside the Orthodox shul, Adas Torah synagogue, in the Pico-Robertson area. According to police, this led to two battery reports.

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An Israeli real estate company that had previously marketed properties in West Bank Israeli settlements was one of the sponsors of the real estate event being held at the synagogue.

Both Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti and President Joe Biden denounced the violence in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood.

On X, Biden expressed his disapproval of the events outside the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles. “It is dangerous, immoral, antisemitic, and un-American to intimidate Jewish congregants.”

According to officials, police are stepping up their patrols at the local synagogue and other places of worship.

NBC Los Angeles reported that on Sunday, counterdemonstrators, some of whom were holding Israeli flags, confronted protestors, and there were multiple altercations in the neighborhood.

According to Nafoli Sherman, “one person just boom, straight to my nose,” NBC Los Angeles said. “I dropped to the ground. Several strikes were made to my head. This place kicked me out.

People have reportedly been known to hit people and use protest banners as weapons. Police said that they had apprehended someone for allegedly carrying a spiked post; the suspect was cited at the West Los Angeles station and then released.

The person who was arrested has not provided any additional information to the public.

“OUR LAND IS NOT FOR SALE!” read a pro-Palestinian Instagram post that called for demonstrations outside the synagogue during Sunday’s real estate event.

On Instagram, student organizations Trojans for Palestine, the Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation, and the University of Southern California announced that protesters had assembled to voice their opposition to the sale of occupied land.

The group stated that the primary goal of the protesters was to resist the unfair selling of occupied land to a corrupt settlement market in Europe and America.

Along with the more than 200,000 settlers in east Jerusalem, there are over 500,000 Israelis residing in settlements constructed in the occupied West Bank. Israel views the settlements in east Jerusalem as its capital’s neighborhoods. Some of the communities date back decades, and in recent years they have grown significantly.

Despite Israel’s government’s intentions to increase settlement housing, the majority of the world views those settlements as illegal.

The executive director of the Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Hussam Ayloush, stated on Monday that he supports a thorough inquiry into the weekend’s violence and that violence is never acceptable.

“Agencies that want to profit from the cruel theft of Palestinian land have committed flagrant violations of both international law and human rights” he emphasized in a statement that the purpose of the march was to bring attention to.

The synagogue’s statement condemned the event and said that it was in direct opposition to the values that faith organizations were supposed to support. It promoted “settlements on unlawfully occupied Palestinian property, where only Jews are permitted to reside.” “Instead of treating this occurrence as a human rights issue, elected leaders and the mainstream media have politicized it as religious prejudice. We demand that political leaders employ the same zeal that has been correctly applied to denouncing antisemitism to the organizations engaged in the allegedly unlawful sale of Palestinian land as well as to the counterprotesters who use violence against anti-genocide demonstrators.

Along with Biden and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, California Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the violence. The physical altercations, in his words, were “appalling.”

He stated on X that “There is no place for such antisemitic bigotry in California.”

“Antisemitism and violence against Jews will not find a home in Los Angeles,” Bass declared in a statement. We’ll track down and hold accountable those who are accountable for either.

This spring, a pro-Palestinian demonstration campsite at UCLA was stormed by a mob, setting in conflicts and acts of violence. Videos showed counterprotesters pelting individuals with chemicals, striking them with sticks, assaulting victims, and igniting pyrotechnics. Before law enforcement officials could arrive, the fighting continued for hours. Eventually, the encampment was dismantled.

The violence outside the West Los Angeles synagogue on Sunday occurs over nine months into the Israel-Hamas conflict, following the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel by militants commanded by Hamas that claimed 1,200 lives and kidnapped 250 more.

In the zone governed by Hamas, the Health Ministry reports that over 37,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict. It has caused a humanitarian disaster and forced the majority of the 2.3 million people living in the region to flee.

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