Dozens of pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters engaged in a violent clash Sunday outside a synagogue in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The incident, which involved pushing and punching, led to an arrest, according to a police spokesman. No details were released about the individual, but he faces a misdemeanor charge for allegedly carrying a prohibited item at a protest: “a spiked flag.”
Pro-Palestinian activists began gathering outside the Adas Torah synagogue in the 9000 block of West Pico Boulevard shortly before 11 a.m., Los Angeles Police Officer Tony Im said. They quickly encountered counterprotesters, many of them carrying Israeli flags.
Video posted on social media showed fistfights between protesters, some of whom wielded sticks and handles of protest signs as police in riot gear stood nearby. Numerous clashes broke out along the street, with some protesters hurling obscenities as they struggled with each other until they fell to the ground.
I said there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Pro-Palestinian protesters chant near the Adas Torah synagogue on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles on June 23, 2024.
(Zoë Cranfill / Los Angeles Times)
The video appeared to show at least two pro-Palestinian protesters being pulled from a van and detained near Pico Boulevard and Wetherly Drive, with an LAPD officer removing a small child from the back seat of the vehicle.
Rabbi Hertzel Illulian, founder of the JEM Community Center in Beverly Hills, told KCAL News that the protest “doesn't belong” in front of a synagogue. “I don't think Jews would go in front of a mosque or Christians would go in front of a mosque to do such a thing.”
The ongoing war in Gaza, which was sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel, has sparked numerous protests across the United States between pro-Palestinian protesters and supporters of Israel.
Although the United States has strongly supported Israel's goals of freeing hostages held in Gaza and defeating the militant group Hamas, it is increasingly concerned about the growing Palestinian death toll and the humanitarian crisis created by the war.
This is a developing story. City News Service contributed to this report.
