Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, public officials, and local faith leaders joined together to condemn recent attacks against area Jews amid Israeli-Palestinian violence.
"Los Angeles stands against antisemitism," Garcetti said outside City Hall on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reported. "We stand against the ideas that Jews should be singled out and attacked because of who they are. It mirrors what we have done too many times together, when we have stood up against Islamophobia or racism."
Garcetti and other officials urged residents to report hate crimes and incidents, and pledged to hold perpetrators accountable.
On Tuesday night while eating outside an L.A. restaurant, two Jewish men were attacked viciously by members of a pro-Palestinian caravan.
The Times said the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime. No arrests had been made.
Attackers allegedly shouted slogans against Israel.
Videos of the incident — shot by multiple witnesses who recorded the assault from different vantage points — trended on social media.
"Tonight pro-Palestinian individuals were driving with megaphones around La Cienega & Beverly (a heavily Jewish area) in Los Angeles and threw objects at Jews at a restaurant table. Some threw things back," tweeted Siamak Kordestani, a former senior legislative assistant to Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and someone who describes himself as an Iranian and Jewish.
"The pro-Palestinian group came to the sidewalk to fight."
Video showed people in a caravan of cars flying Palestinian flags yelling obscenities and "You guys should be ashamed of yourselves" as they drive by the restaurant, the Times said.
The LAPD also was investigating a separate incident in which a parking garage security camera captured an Orthodox Jewish man fleeing several cars flying Palestinian flags that appeared to be pursuing him.
The trouble in Los Angeles occurred before Thursday's cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas.
The two sides had engaged in bombings, with Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza killing at least 230 Palestinians, including 65 children, according to the Hamas-administered health ministry.
Israel said 12 people — including a soldier, a teenager and a 5-year-old — had been killed by Hamas rockets.
L.A. officials said local pro-Palestinian rallies in the past several days largely had been peaceful. Protestors met outside the Israeli Consulate in L.A. on Tuesday, and thousands of pro-Aran demonstrators gathered in Westwood during the weekend.
On Thursday, a representative of the Islamic Center of Southern California condemned the local acts of violence against Jewish residents.
"I know how it feels to be alone, calling for peace and justice for your people," said Hedab Tarifi, who is Palestinian. "Violence against Jewish bystanders on the streets of Los Angeles is not acceptable. It doesn’t further the Palestinian cause or any causes."
The recent incidents have prompted community leaders such as Rabbi Jason Weiner, who leads Knesset Israel synagogue in Pico-Robertson, to urge Jewish residents not to be intimidated by the attacks.
Weiner told the Times he ad been subjected to antisemitism while walking to temple on Tuesday with his 14-year-old son during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. A woman driving by yelled "you f***ing Jews," according to Weiner.
"A lot of Jews were feeling really discouraged, very afraid," he said. "I think it would be a shame if people felt the solution to what’s happening now is to hide their Judaism or abandon their Judaism."
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