Biden Condemns Antisemitic Protests Outside of Los Angeles Synagogue After Violent Clashes
The president says he is ‘appalled’ by the actions of the protesters.
President Biden is condemning the actions of antisemitic protesters who blockaded a synagogue at Los Angeles on Sunday that led to violent clashes with local police. Demonstrators praised the “intifada” and waved Palestinian flags during the demonstration.
“I’m appalled by the scenes outside of Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles. Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American,” Mr. Biden wrote on X on Monday. “Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship — and engaging in violence — is never acceptable.”
The events unfolded outside of the Orthodox Adas Torah synagogue on Sunday because of an event inside that was billed as a real estate opportunity for those interested in buying land in Israel. Adas Torah is located in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Pico-Robertson near Century City and Beverly Hills.
Anti-Israel protesters were seen attacking Jews near the synagogue, and at some points fights broke out between the two groups. One video posted online shows an anti-Israel demonstrator who has his face covered with a keffiyeh spraying a pro-Israel counterprotester with what appears to be bear spray or mace. One young man who was with the pro-Israel crowd was seen bruised and covered in his own blood as he left the altercation.
State and local officials also condemned the protest. Governor Newsom called the protests “appalling.”
“There is no excuse for targeting a house of worship. Such antisemitic hatred has no place in California,” Mr. Newsom wrote on X.
Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles said that the “violence in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood … was abhorrent, and blocking access to a place of worship is unacceptable.” She said that she has “called on LAPD to provide additional patrols in the Pico-Robertson community as well as outside of houses of worship throughout the city.”
“Los Angeles will not be a harbor for antisemitism and violence. Those responsible for either will be found and held accountable,” the mayor wrote.
Congressman Adam Schiff, who represents Los Angeles and is well on his way to being California’s next senator, wrote that “blocking entry to a synagogue” and attacking Jewish people and their businesses represented nothing more than “pure, plain antisemitism.”
Some found the condemnations from Democrats of the anti-Israel protesters disingenuous. Senator Cotton said the president should have sent federal law enforcement after the anti-Israel protesters the same way they went after the protesters who broke into the Capitol on January 6.
“If only you were in charge of the FBI and Department of Justice and could order them to conduct a manhunt for every one of these pro-Hamas lunatics,” Mr. Cotton wrote in response to the president’s statement. “Like you did for every grandma in a MAGA hat within a country mile of the Capitol on January 6.”
