The incident happened in the midst of pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests in a suburb outside of Los Angeles.
Elderly Jewish man dies after confrontation with pro-Palestinian protester at California rally
Following a weekend altercation over the Israel-Hamas conflict in Southern California, a 69-year-old Jewish man died on Monday from his wounds. Authorities said they were looking into the event as a potential hate crime as well as a homicide.
According to the authorities, the conflict started on Sunday afternoon during opposing protests at a crossroads in the community of Thousand Oaks, California, which is located approximately 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles. According to the agency, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups were present at the demonstration site when deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report about a violent incident.
There, they found the man, Paul Kessler, with a head injury he had sustained when he fell backward and hit his head on the ground. Mr. Kessler, a Thousand Oaks resident, was taken to a hospital, where he died Monday. The Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Mr. Kessler had died of blunt force head injury, the sheriff’s office said.
Witnesses told investigators that Mr. Kessler had a physical altercation with at least one counterprotester, the authorities said
In a phone interview on Monday night, Jonathan Oswaks, 69, revealed that he had first spoken with Mr. Kessler a week prior to the event when they had gone to see a comparable pro-Palestinian demonstration. They decided to counterprotest at the Thousand Oaks crossing the next week.
Regarding their choice, Mr. Oswaks remarked, “We’ve been here, we’ve seen what this is all about.” “We must arrive with Israeli flags and people.”
One hour before the pro-Palestinian demonstration was set to start, on Sunday at around 2:00 p.m., the two reconvened, according to Mr. Oswaks. Then, he said, he and Mr. Kessler parted ways and took up positions on opposing sides of Westlake Boulevard with the intention of “occupying space.” Mr. Kessler was carrying an Israeli flag.
A man who Mr. Oswaks thought he recognized from last week’s rally started shouting into his ear with a megaphone as the pro-Palestinian protestors gathered, Mr. Oswaks claimed. The man then came up to Mr. Kessler after crossing the street. Although Mr. Oswaks noticed the man swung his megaphone in Mr. Kessler’s direction, he did not know if Mr. Kessler had been hit.
Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff set up a press conference for Tuesday am in Thousand Oaks.
News of Mr. Kessler’s fall spread rapidly through already-tense communities. Monday night, a number of mourners gathered outside the Shell gas station, close to the scene of the altercation, and laid candles and flowers on a ledge.
Rabbi Michael Barclay, of the nearby Temple Ner Simcha, said on Monday evening that he had been urging congregants not to share rumors and that he had previously discouraged community members from counterprotesting at pro-Palestinian demonstrations to avoid confrontations.
Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Los Angeles, denounced all violence and urged people to avoid “sensationalizing such a tragedy for political gains or spreading rumors that could unnecessarily escalate tensions that are already at an all-time high.”
“We urge everyone to wait for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office to complete its investigation before drawing any conclusions,” Mr. Ayloush said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with the family and the Jewish community during this difficult time.”
Southern California’s Jewish community has been alarmed by recent antisemitic acts in the area, according to the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
The president and CEO of the federation, Rabbi Noah Farkas, stated, “The fact of the matter is there is now a Jewish man who is dead.” “And here we are once more as a Jewish community, afraid to be ourselves, afraid to express ourselves.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles wrote that “violence against [the Jewish] people has no place in civilized society,” and that they will “not tolerate violence against [the Jewish] community… [and] will do everything in [their] power to prevent it.”
“Our hearts are with the family of the victim,” the group wrote in a Monday night post. “While we wait for more information from our law enforcement partners, we remind you that this is the fourth major antisemitic crime committed in Los Angeles this year alone.”
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