An anti-Israel rally held outside a Los Angeles synagogue broke out into an “abhorrent” and violent street fight when pro-Israel protesters confronted their adversaries on Sunday. Several officials, including the mayor and President Joe Biden, have criticized the chaos as antisemitic. Pico Robertson, near Beverly Hills, is a mainly Jewish neighbourhood. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) confirmed it responded to two protests at Adas Torah temple, an Orthodox synagogue, per the LA Times, as video footage went viral on social media. Protestors can be heard chanting the genocidal threat against Jews, calling for them to be eliminated from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. “From the river to the sea,” they shout. “Free, free Palestine! Long live intifada!” which means calling for a civil uprising. Videos show anti-Israel protesters attempting to get inside the synagogue, with police blocking their path. Demonstrators also block traffic, and people on either side can be seen scuffling in the street and on the sidewalk. .LA mayor Karen Bass said Sunday’s “violence in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood was abhorrent, and blocking access to a place of worship is unacceptable.”The mayor added she plans to meet with the LAPD Monday on how to amp up police presence in the city to combat the rise in antisemitic attacks since the Hamas terror attack on Israel October 7. “I want to be clear that Los Angeles will not be a harbor for antisemitism and violence. Those responsible for either will be found and held accountable,” said Bass. .Biden slammed the violent attempts of the anti-Israel mob to take over a Jewish synagogue. “Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American. Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship — and engaging in violence — is never acceptable,” he said in a statement. Gov. Gavin Newsom called the “violent clashes” “appalling.”“There is no excuse for targeting a house of worship. Such antisemitic hatred has no place in California,” Newsom wrote on social media. According to the Anti-Defamation League antisemitic incidents were up 140% in 2023. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in 2023 anti-Muslim bias reports were higher than in the three decades prior.
