More than a dozen members of Palestinian and Jewish organizations gathered outside Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday to protest a proposal to give $1 million to pro-Israel security companies, after which the proposal was amended to make the money available to religious and community spaces of all denominations.
proposal, introduced The comment follows one made June 26 by council members Katy Yaroslavsky and Bob Blumenfield. Protest in front of the synagogue Violence broke out in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Pico-Robertson, the latest in a series of clashes across the United States over Israel’s war in Gaza.
According to the news release, the original proposal would have allocated $400,000 for the Jewish Federation’s community safety initiative, $350,000 for a contract with nonprofit private security firm Magen Am and $250,000 to the Jewish Community Foundation to enhance “security at places of worship, community centers and schools, particularly within the Jewish community.”
During Tuesday’s council meeting, Yaroslavsky asked to make an alternate proposal to be discussed at the July 31 meeting because the original proposal’s reference to providing funding to organizations of all denominations would change. The change came after Yaroslavsky spoke with city officials and other community leaders who made it clear that the need for such “funding is beyond the scope of the initial proposal,” he said.
The new proposal would increase the funding amount from $1 million to $2 million.
“I believe this is a fair and necessary change that will ensure all religious communities in Los Angeles have access to these funds, while also addressing the urgent need to enhance security for Jewish institutions,” Yaroslavsky said.
The proposal is intended to reflect the views of Governor Gavin Newsom California State Nonprofit Security Grant ProgramThe program aims to provide funding to “enhance security for nonprofit organizations that are at higher risk of violent attacks and hate crimes because of their ideology, beliefs, or mission.” While funding from Newson’s program wouldn’t be available until the fall, Yaroslavsky’s proposal would make that money available sooner.
Protesters at the City Hall rally, which included pro-Palestinian and Jewish advocacy groups, railed against the original measure and its funding of Magem Am, which they accused of training and recruiting former members of the Israeli Defense Forces to use “violence and war tactics.” Instead, they argue that this money should be used to fund affordable housing and other community programs in L.A.
Magen M is a non-profit organization licensed to provide physical, armed security services in the United States. Website,
Members of Magen Am, formed by Rabbi Yossi Ilfort, were present at the synagogue protests and the violent counter-protests at the UCLA student camp earlier this year.
Estee Chandler, founder of the Los Angeles chapter, said at Tuesday’s rally that Yaroslavsky and Blumenfield are part of an insidious effort to conflate Zionism with anti-Semitism in order to mislead confused and fearful people from speaking out against the movement’s decades of oppression of Palestinians.
Chandler said council members were “deceptively promoting the myth that having more guns on our streets will make Jews safer, when we all know the opposite is true.”
“Every dollar spent on additional policing takes money away from our public services that promote the well-being of our community members,” he said.
The recent proposal was partly motivated by the following reasons: Protest outside the Adas Torah synagogue on June 23, which saw violent clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli supporters that eventually spilled into the streets of the neighborhood. Both sides claim they were pepper sprayed and attacked by the other side, and LA police did little to intervene in the violence.
The display was denounced by national and local elected officials as anti-Semitic, but Palestinian supporters say they were protesting a real estate program at the synagogue that advertised “housing projects in all of Israel’s finest Anglo neighborhoods.” “Anglo” is a translation from Hebrew that means “English-speaking.” The ad that was run was a very significant move for followers of Judaism. Jewish Journal The location of the real estate was not specified.
The homes in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the West Bank’s Efrat and Ariel areas were listed for prices ranging from $435,000 to $4.1 million, according to an archive on the website of My Home in Israel, one of the companies listed in the ad. Most of the international community — including the U.S. and the United Nations — say settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.
The protest in front of the synagogue was criticized by President Biden and other politicians, including Mayor Karen Bass.
“Yesterday’s incident was abhorrent, and blocking access to a place of worship is completely unacceptable,” Bass said at the news conference. “This violence was designed to instill fear. It was designed to divide. But hear me loud and clear: It will fail.”
Biden called the demonstration “dangerous, unwise, anti-Semitic and un-American.”
“Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a place of worship — and engaging in violence — is never acceptable,” he said in a statement.
John Parker, coordinator of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, said at the City Hall protest that Bass and Biden wanted to “encourage fascist militias to attack us and deny us what little constitutional rights we have left” and that the proposal would “inspire more racist attacks by the LAPD.”
He said, “What if the Ku Klux Klan was selling our land? If it happened at a Christian church or mosque or synagogue, we would still oppose that racist sale.”
Ron Gochez, a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher who was not speaking on behalf of the district, participated in the UCLA campus protests a few weeks ago as an alumnus supporting the student camps. He said he was shoved and pepper sprayed when a crowd of pro-Israel protesters attacked the camp.
“One of the Zionists there threatened my life,” he said during a protest at City Hall. “Will the LAPD spend a million dollars, will the city spend a million dollars to protect me, to protect us? No, they won’t. They’re trying to score political points with people who will fund their campaign for reelection.”
Interim LAPD Chief Dominic Choi said last week that a “mobile field force” tried to disperse the crowd at the temple on West Pico Boulevard when at least 100 pro-Palestinian protesters “attempted to block the entrance to the synagogue.” About 150 pro-Israel protesters arrived, and violent clashes broke out with the protesters.
Several pro-Palestinian protesters told the Times that LAPD officers pushed and hit them with batons during the demonstration, and that they tried to leave the area but were chased and attacked by pro-Israel supporters for more than an hour. Counter-protesters also told the Times that they were injured and punched by pro-Palestinian protesters, and that they begged the LAPD to stop the fighting, but to no avail.
Bass and LAPD Commander Steve Lurie denied allegations that police were told not to do anything at a public safety briefing last week. Lurie said no officer told another to “back off and slow down or stop any action.”
