Over the weekend, pro-Palestinian demonstrators defaced the Los Angeles National Cemetery, where 85,000 veterans of wars and their families dating back to the American Civil War are buried.
???? VIDEO OF PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS DEFACING U.S. MILITARY CEMETERY
85,000 American soldiers from 19th, 20th, and 21st century wars are buried at Los Angeles National Cemetery.
Reminder: the pro-Israel side loves America ???????? pic.twitter.com/ZFWUgzXIab
— Sia Kordestani (@SiaKordestani) January 7, 2024
The California Penal Code states that a person is “guilty of a crime and punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 or by imprisonment in a county jail for not exceeding one year, who maliciously does any of the following:
Destroys, cuts, mutilates, effaces, or otherwise injures, tears down, or removes any tomb, monument, memorial, or marker in a cemetery, or any gate, door, fence, wall, post or railing, or any enclosure for the protection of a cemetery or mortuary or any property in a cemetery or mortuary. Obliterates any grave, vault, niche, or crypt.Destroys, cuts, breaks or injures any mortuary building or any building, statuary, or ornamentation within the limits of a cemetery.
The vandals spray-painted “Free Gaza” on the entrance to the memorial, later adding the word “intifada,” which is a call for a war against the Jews of Israel.
Today, pro-Hamas extremists in LA sunk to a new low vandalizing the venerable grounds of the Los Angeles National Cemetery, where 85K American heroes who sacrificed their lives for our freedom are interned. They even used a Nazi concentration camp symbol of an upside red triangle pic.twitter.com/53z4y0acRT
— Sam Yebri (@samyebri) January 7, 2024
The demonstrators chanted “long live Palestine,” “there is only one solution,” “from the river from the sea, Palestine will be free,” as National Review pointed out.
“More proof that the people who hate #Israel, also hate America,” California congressman Brad Sherman tweeted. “Here, at the Los Angeles National Cemetery in my district, they deface a cemetery for those who gave their lives to end slavery and protect the world from fascism.”
More proof that the people who hate #Israel, also hate America.
Here, at the Los Angeles National Cemetery in my district, they deface a cemetery for those who gave their lives to end slavery and protect the world from fascism. https://t.co/0gO4zK8gnN
— Congressman Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) January 8, 2024
— Sam Yebri (@samyebri) January 8, 2024
The anti-America crowd returned not to clean up their vile crime but to add a pro-genocide against Jews postscript: “intifada.” Jews are becoming increasingly unsafe in America because our leaders refuse to acknowledge the danger posed by these growing extremist forces in America pic.twitter.com/BUtzKwu4An
— Sam Yebri (@samyebri) January 7, 2024
Los Angeles National Cemetery was inaugurated in May 1889, when Abner Prather, a Civil War veteran with the Fourth Indiana Infantry, died at the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (now Veterans Affairs), which was situated adjacent to the cemetery. The cemetery was designated for the Pacific Branch National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Fourteen recipients of the Medal of Honor are buried at the cemetery.
“A Veteran’s spouse, widow or widower, minor dependent children, and under certain conditions, unmarried adult children with disabilities may also be eligible for burial. Eligible spouses and children may be buried even if they predecease the Veteran,” the Department of Veterans Affairs notes.