The Israeli consulate in Los Angeles has warned that foreign governments, including Iran and Qatar, are helping to finance and organise increasingly aggressive anti-Israel demonstrations in the United States, including the violent protest outside a Los Angeles synagogue on Wednesday. Deputy Consul General Yulia Rachinsky-Spivakov said that some of those who disrupted the event at Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s Audrey Irmas Pavilion appeared to have no connection to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, suggesting the involvement of external actors “standing behind them.” She argued that funding from Iran, Qatar and other foreign networks helps explain the growing frequency and intensity of such demonstrations, reports The Jerusalem Post.
The consulate pointed to near-weekly protests by Code Pink outside its offices—an organisation previously linked to an alleged CCP-backed network—as further evidence of foreign interference. Consul General Israel Bachar accused these groups of exploiting democratic freedoms to undermine American society, saying: “They are cynically using the American democracy to attack it. We need to fight against their fear tactics.”
Rachinsky-Spivakov warned that authorities are underestimating the danger posed by increasingly violent demonstrations. The Los Angeles protest left security personnel injured, caused property damage, and saw fires lit outside the venue. Participants inside the symposium were threatened with antisemitic slurs such as “Zionist pigs” and “baby killers,” and protesters attempted to storm the event, smashing vases and shattering glass in scuffles with security. Vehicles leaving the premises were also allegedly attacked.
The diplomat compared the incident with the 19 November protest at New York’s Park East Synagogue and invoked the fatal May terrorist attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC, which killed two embassy staff members. She warned: “We already have had tragic experience with what can happen,” urging local officials to treat the threat with far greater seriousness.
The symposium—organised by the Israeli consulate, the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles, Faith and Community Development Los Angeles (FACE), and the Jewish Federation’s Community Security Initiative—was intended to strengthen cooperation on public safety between Jewish and Asian communities. Instead, organisers reported arrests for battery and property destruction. The protest was led by Koreatown for Palestine and Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, largely in opposition to a lecture by a representative of the Israeli defence company Elbit Systems.
Photo credit: ADREES LATIF/REUTERS
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