Pro-Israel Groups to Protest in Los Angeles

Prompted by worsening violence between Israelis and the Palestinians, pro-Israel groups in Los Angeles are planning an Israel solidarity protest for May 12. The protest is expected to draw many activist groups and is scheduled to take place from 3-5 P.M., outside the Federal Building at Wilshire boulevard and Veteran Avenue.

In a statement released Tuesday, StandWithUs, an education group focused on defending Israel on college campuses, condemned Hamas’ role in the latest violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Hamas is attempting to escalate conflict, to perpetrate terror attacks and massacre Israelis,” StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein said.

Hamas, an anti-Israel militant group governing Gaza, has reportedly launched more than 1000 rockets on Israel since Monday, leaving at least two Israeli civilians dead and more than 80 wounded. Israel has responded with airstrikes and targeted killings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders in Gaza.

The Wednesday protest follows a May 11 anti-Israel protest outside the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles, where more than 100 protestors, donning keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags, chanted slogans including, “We don’t want no two-state, we want ’48.” Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers were on the scene.

The organizers of the pro-Palestinian demonstration included ANSWER Coalition, American Muslims for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace-Los Angeles (JVP), a left-wing activist organization with a long history of criticizing Israel.

“We proudly stand against all forms of racism, including Zionism,” Estee Chandler, founder of JVP in Los Angeles, said, speaking into a megaphone at the anti-Israel gathering.

Lili, a 24-year-old who will be beginning rabbinical school in the fall, also attended the protests on Tuesday. Declining to give her last name or identify her rabbinical school, she said: “I’m here because I believe what’s happening on the ground right now in Palestine-Israel is a terrible injustice, and I think it’s important, especially for Jews on the left, to make sure we have a presence, and our voice is heard.”

While the protestors gathered outside the consulate blamed Israel for the latest flareup, Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles Hillel Newman said Hamas was instigating the violence. He characterized those defending the Palestinians while attacking Israel, whether at a protest or in the news media, as “misguided.”

“Anyone who supports this kind of activity is misguided,” Newman said in a phone interview. “They are actually supporting a terrorist organization. They should give Israel the right to self-defense as they would any other country in the world.”

The increasingly tense situation in Israel reportedly began because of a court battle, in which Jewish settlers attempted to evict Palestinians from their homes in Sheik Jarrah, an East Jerusalem neighborhood. Raucous clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem took place over the weekend. Hamas has since launched a barrage of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel, and Israel has responded with airstrikes.

The current violence between Israel and Hamas is the worst to occur between the two since a war in 2014.