There has been a dramatic uptick of Jews being physically attacked around the world in the wake of Israel’s operation in Gaza.
Pro-Israel supporters have been assaulted in recent days in New York, mezuzahs have been vandalized in London, and swastikas comparing Israel to Nazi Germany have been displayed in France. Even Jews with no connection to Israel have been assaulted by pro-Palestinian agitators.
On Tuesday, an “Emergency Rally to Defend Palestine” was held outside the Israeli consulate in Manhattan, with pro-Palestinian protesters then marching toward Third Avenue and blocking traffic in the vicinity.
The protest turned violent when pro-Palestinian protesters attacked pro-Israel counter-demonstrators. Video footage showed police swiftly intervening after punches were thrown. Fifteen people were arrested during the disturbances, according to the Daily Mail.
In Los Angeles this week, groups of pro-Palestinian protesters attacked Jews in two separate incidents.
Authorities are investigating one of the incidents as a possible hate crime.
In an altercation on Tuesday night recorded on video, a group of men waving Palestinian flags attacked diners at a sushi restaurant in the neighborhood of Beverly Grove, throwing punches, bottles, and other objects. The diners included a group of Jewish men.
Another man at the scene, who was not Jewish, told the local CBS affiliate that he and his group also were attacked, and that he was pepper-sprayed when he tried to defend the group. He added that the attackers used antisemitic language to determine who at the restaurant was Jewish.
In an incident Monday night recorded by a security camera, an Orthodox Jewish man was chased by a caravan of Palestine supporters. He escaped unharmed.
The Los Angeles chapter of the Anti-Defamation League offered a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the assault.
“We are outraged over reports of this antisemitic assault and thank the Los Angeles Police Department for investigating the incident as a potential hate crime,” said ADL Los Angeles Regional Director Jeffrey I. Abrams, writing on Twitter. “These acts of hate have no place in our community, and we hope this reward will bring about information that will lead to an arrest or arrests and the prosecution of these hate crimes to the fullest extent of the law.”
The Israeli-American Council, a nonprofit that works to “strengthen the bond” between the US and Israel, issued a statement calling the attack a “hate crime,” saying it was “deeply concerned” by the report.
Sinai Temple, the city’s largest Conservative congregation, sent an email to its members on Wednesday acknowledging the attack, and calling on law enforcement “to seek out the perpetrators, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law and make clear that such crimes of hate will not be tolerated in our city or in our country.”
In the London suburb of Borehamwood, two Jewish residents reported that the mezuzahs on their front doorposts had been vandalized, the Jewish News reported.
The local police are treating the incidents as racially motivated crimes.
Across the other side of London in Chigwell, two men were charged with violently assaulting Rabbi Rafi Goodwin, assistant rabbi at the Chigwell & Hainault United Synagogue.
Goodwin was severely beaten and required hospitalization after sustaining head wounds when two young men described as being of South Asian ethnicity stopped the rabbi’s vehicle and assaulted him when he got out to confront them.
Abderrahman Brahimi, 25, and Souraka Djabouri, 18 were both charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, robbery, and religiously aggravated criminal damage.
The suspects hurled antisemitic insults at the rabbi, a report in The Sun said, and allegedly stole his phone.
Goodwin was injured moderately and hospitalized.
On Tuesday, Robert Jenrick, the Communities Service Trust secretary of the UK government, said the assault of Goodwin was part of a major uptick in antisemitic incidents in the country coinciding with hostilities between Hamas and Israel.
The CST, which advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said it had recorded 106 antisemitic incidents since May 8 compared with 19 in the 11 previous days, a fivefold increase.
On the day of Goodwin’s assault, multiple cars displaying Palestinian flags drove through Golders Green, a heavily Jewish part of London. One participant in the convoy shouted, “F*** the Jews, rape their daughters” through a loudspeaker, among other chants.
Pro-Palestinian activists in the United Kingdom occupied a factory on Wednesday co-owned by the Israeli defense firm Elbit to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Several members of the Palestine Action group climbed up on the roof of the building in Leicester, about 161 km. northwest of London, Newsweek reported. Others chained themselves to the gates.
The factory, which is also co-owned by the French firm Thales, is involved in the production of drones, they said.
Police, along with the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, were on the scene, a police spokesperson told the BBC.
Last week, several synagogues in Germany were vandalized including in the cities of Bonn, Mannheim and Munster.
An Israeli flag was burnt outside the town hall of the city of Solingen, and antisemitic chants were sung in a pro-Palestinian rally in the city of Gelsenkirchen.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that Germany had a “zero tolerance” policy against antisemitism.
In a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the French city of Lille on Saturday, a banner was held by protesters equating the Israeli and Nazi flags and accusing Israel of “state terrorism.”