he president denounced keeping worshippers from entering a Los Angeles synagogue. Karen Bass, the city’s Black mayor, vowed to punish any anti-Semite or purveyor of violence. News anchors decried this blatant attack, another terrifying assault on Jewish people.
Others condemned out-of-control, mindless rampages by radical pro-Palestine demonstrators hyped up over Israel’s war on Gaza and storm-trooping through American streets and college campuses.
But it really wasn’t that at all: “Over the weekend, a protest was held against the illegal sale of stolen land in Palestine. The so-called ‘mega event’ promised to help people move to ‘the best Anglo neighborhoods in Israel’ was held at Adas Torah Synagogue in Los Angeles.
The illegal land sale was advertised in the Jewish Journal,” said the pro-peace group CodePink in a June 24 statement. “No religious services were scheduled at the time of the real estate sale and the counter-protest. Contrary to what the media is falsely reporting, the entrance was never blocked by anyone.”
Once again, Zionists and their “iron clad” ally President Joe Biden have stepped forward with a barrage of lies. They are smearing and criminalizing those who oppose Gaza genocide. They are supporting those involved in destroying the Palestinian people throughout Israel.
And they are shutting down the free speech and protest rights of Americans. They are a powerful and influential group. It shows in their ability to move media and politicians to run to their side—and ignore or kill the truth.
Instead of saying there was a clash outside of a synagogue, or location, where an illegal scheme to steal land from Palestinians was happening, June 23 events have been twisted to spin a false tale about the targeting of helpless, fearful, abandoned and victimized Jewish people.
That narrative is a bold lie.
The slaughter of Gazans, with over 37,000 killed by Israeli Defense Forces, hundreds of thousands displaced and seeking refuge while under bloody assault by guns, tanks, bombs and drones—and growing starvation has led to growing outrage.
Attacks on Jews and Muslims have risen in this environment. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), there were 3,578 complaints in an “ongoing wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate” in the last three months of 2023. That’s a 178 percent increase over 2022, the Muslim civil rights group said.
“It is outrageous that President Biden and certain media outlets have misrepresented this protest as an anti-Semitic attack on worshippers. President Biden went as far as to say it was ‘un-American.’ Is Biden saying that using a place of worship to sell ‘Anglo neighborhoods’ on stolen land illegally is an American value?” asked CodePink.
Hussam Ayloush, of CAIR, told the Los Angeles Times demonstrators came out in “response to the blatant violations of both international law and human rights from agencies that seek to make a profit selling brutally stolen Palestinian land as the Israeli government continues its eight-month-long genocidal campaign and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.”
Plans to protest the land stealing were well known, which is why you had counter-protesters show up in support of Israel.
The media, president, politicians, Jewish leaders and organizations have largely painted the incident as an assault on innocent Jewish people and their house of worship. Did it really happen like that? “During the protest, Zionists attacked peace activists and stole their phones, and the LAPD stood by, offering support to the aggressors,” according to CodePink.
“While our comrades were physically assaulted, pepper/bear sprayed, and attacked as they walked back to their cars, LAPD did nothing to keep us safe but rather pushed and used their combat toys to add to injury,” said CodePink Southeast LA organizers
There have been real injuries and deaths in the U.S. related to Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in response to an Oct. 7 Hamas attack. You probably haven’t heard of them. Last November, three Palestinian college students in their early 20s were shot in Burlington, Vermont.
Two are U.S. citizens and one is attending school on a student visa. One of the young men is paralyzed from the chest down. The White man accused of the Thanksgiving break shooting has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder.
In Joliet, Ill., court proceedings are ongoing against a White man charged with fatally stabbing a six-year-old Palestinian boy and trying to kill the child’s mother. He was reportedly upset over the war in Israel. The vicious murder happened last October.
The day before the Los Angeles clash, the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, leaders and supporters in Euless, Texas, held a news conference. They demanded an investigation by state and federal officials into the case of a White woman who allegedly tried to drown two Muslim children in an apartment complex pool.
According to CAIR Texas, on May 19, Mrs. H, the mother, who wears hijab (Islamic head scarf) and modest swimwear, was watching her children in the shallow end of the pool when a White American woman entered the swimming pool area.
The alleged attacker reportedly approached the mother with racist interrogations then jumped into the swimming pool, and grabbed the children to the deep end of the pool to allegedly drown them.
The mother reported jumping into the pool to save her children. According to the mother, her 6-year-old son was able to escape, but her petite 3-year-old daughter was unable.
The alleged attacker snatched off the mother’s head scarf and used it to beat the mother as well as kicking her to keep her away while forcing her daughter’s head underwater. A Black man helped rescue the daughter from the attacker as more people gathered and witnessed.
Cuffed and taken away by a police officer, the attacker reportedly shouted to a bystander woman who was calming the mother down, “Tell her I will kill her, and I will kill her whole family.” The White woman, Elizabeth Wolf, 42, was initially charged with public intoxication.
She has since been charged with attempted capital murder and injury to a child, according to the Associated Press. The child’s mother told officers that Wolf told the mother she wasn’t American, along with other racial statements, police said. She wants her alleged attacker charged with a hate crime.
The Muslim mother finds her children traumatized, afraid to go outside, and her husband’s job threatened because he has gone to appointments and errands to keep his wife and children safe. “We are American citizens, originally from Palestine, and I don’t know where to go to feel safe with my kids. My country is facing a war, and we are facing that hate here,” she said.
There are real victims here, we don’t have to invent them.
Naba’a Muhammad is editor-in-chief of The Final Call newspaper. He can be reached via www.finalcall.com and [email protected]. Find him on Facebook. Follow @Rmfinalcall on X, formerly Twitter.
