Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators and supporters of Israel engaged in a violent clash Sunday outside a synagogue in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Pro-Palestinian activists began gathering in front of the Adas Torah synagogue in the 9000 block of West Pico Boulevard shortly before 11 a.m., L.A. Police Officer Tony Im told City News Service. They were quickly met with counterdemonstrators, many of them carrying Israeli flags.
Video posted on social media shows fistfights breaking out among protesters, some of whom are wielding sticks and handles from protest signs as police in riot gear stand nearby. Numerous scuffles can be seen along the street, with some protesters hurling obscenities as they wrestle one another to the ground.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.
Rabbi Hertzel Illulian, founder of the JEM Community Center in Beverly Hills, told KCAL News that the protest “doesn’t belong” in front of a synagogue. “I don’t think the Jewish would go in front of a mosque or the Christian people would go in front of a mosque to do such a thing.”
Video appeared to show at least two pro-Palestinian demonstrators taken from an SUV and detained near Pico Boulevard and Wetherly Drive, with an LAPD officer removing a small child from the back seat of the vehicle.
The ongoing war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, has sparked numerous protests across the U.S. between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israel supporters.
Although the U.S. has staunchly supported Israel’s aims of freeing hostages taken into Gaza and defeating the militant group Hamas, it has grown increasingly concerned over the rising Palestinian death toll and the humanitarian crisis created by the war.
This is a developing story. City News Service contributed to this report.