US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that federal officials are investigating a demonstration over the Israel-Hamas war that spiraled into violence outside a Los Angeles synagogue last weekend.
Garland said the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California “have been and, as we speak, are collecting evidence on that matter.”
According to reports, anti-Israel protesters attempted to block the entrance to the synagogue on Pico Boulevard, where an event on real estate investment in Israel was being held.
Clashes broke out between the anti-Israel demonstrators and pro-Israel counter-protesters, and police were called in to break up the clashes. One person was arrested, and videos of the events circulated online, with some calling the incident a “pogrom.”
Garland did not comment further on what exactly officials are examining.
But Garland said the “Justice Department will not tolerate criminal acts motivated by antisemitic hate,” becoming emotional as he recalled his family’s own history fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe at the start of the 20th century.
“Let me promise to the Jewish community that this Justice Department will do everything within its power, working with federal partners and state and local partners, to secure the community’s safety,” he said. “And as attorney general, I will do everything in my power to do that.”
At a virtual security briefing on Wednesday called by the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, LA Mayor Karen Bass called the violence “abhorrent” and said she has taken steps to explore banning masks at protests.
Mask bans — a proposal that is also being floated in New York in the face of disruptive protests over the Gaza war — have been challenged on First Amendment grounds, though they were on the books for decades in some states.
“At this point, we don’t think that this will withstand judicial scrutiny, but we are still looking into it, and we’re examining the idea of having buffer zones around houses of worship,” Bass said.
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department acknowledged that it had been unprepared for the demonstration.
At the virtual briefing on Wednesday, LAPD commander Steve Lurie, the department’s Jewish community liaison, said the department was unprepared for the size and nature of the rally.
“We did know that people were coming to target that synagogue,” Lurie said. “Our estimates of how many, and the level of vitriol that we predicted, were not correct.”
Lurie said the LAPD had deployed more than a dozen officers in anticipation of the protest, and that the department called for backup once those initial officers were overwhelmed.
He said that ultimately, between 60 and 75 officers were present less than an hour after the protest’s outbreak.
“That is frustrating, and it is a long time, but does represent a fairly rapid response when we have to grab police officers from all over the city,” Lurie said.
In the wake of the clashes, some local Jews have faulted the LAPD for not responding more promptly or forcefully.
One presenter at the real estate event, who did not give his name to avoid being targeted and doxxed, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “our beef was with LAPD,” not the anti-Israel protesters, and called the police “flat-footed.”
Rabbi Noah Farkas, the CEO of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, called the protest a “coordinated assault” on the Jewish community. He added that the violence was not surprising.
“This is a moment that we have been almost slouching towards for a couple years now,” he said. “As we’ve said before many times, hate speech, hate incidences, they lead to hate crimes.”
Los Angeles saw some of the most violent scenes during the recent wave of pro-Palestinian encampments at US educational institutions amid mounting accusations of antisemitic harassment against Jewish students.
Demonstrations against Israel, along with instances of antisemitism, have skyrocketed in the US since Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages in a devastating shock attack that triggered the war in Gaza.
Following Sunday’s protest, most statements by officials have condemned antisemitic intimidation and violence. But the presenter at the Israeli event at the synagogue said he was also “embarrassed” by the conduct of the pro-Israel activists at the scene.
“You can protest, you can chant, you can say whatever you want,” he said. “But the vitriol on the pro-Israel side was disconcerting. I don’t think that they are representative of the broader community.”