CNN’s Van Jones Calls Protest Outside Synagogue That Turned Violent a ‘Pogrom’

CNN’s Van Jones had harsh words for the pro-Palestine protestors who clashed outside a Los Angeles synagogue on Sunday, going so far as to call the demonstration a “pogrom” against Jewish people.

The protest was held to oppose a real estate event being held at the synagogue on Sunday by My Israel Home, a company that markets settlements in the West Bank. Pro-Israel counter-demonstrators showed up to oppose the protestors, leading to violent clashes between both sides. Pro-Palestinian protestors reportedly blocked the doors of the synagogue. In one video, pro-Israel protestors attacked a photojournalist documenting the event.

During a conversation with CNN’s Brianna Keilar and Boris Sanchez on Monday, Jones expressed how disheartened he was by the choice of the protestors to stage their protest at a center for the Jewish community. Jones, who did not appear aware of the reason for the protest, said he found nothing wrong with protesting a policy, but by targeting a place of worship, this was an attack on “the people”:

Listen, if you don’t like what’s happening in Gaza, it’s your right to protest. That’s not a problem. But you protest a policy. You don’t protest a people. When you protest a policy, you go to City Hall and you protest, you go to the Israeli consulate, peacefully, you protest. Maybe you go to your elected representative, you protest. You don’t bum rush a Jewish neighborhood and run up on a synagogue. That’s not protesting a policy, that’s protesting a people…

I have no problem with people protesting policy. You cannot protest a people. That is not a protest. That’s a pogrom, and that has to stop.

President Joe Biden condemned the protest in Los Angeles on Monday, saying in a post on Twitter/X: “I’m appalled by the scenes outside of Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles. Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American. Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship – and engaging in violence – is never acceptable.”

Watch the video above via CNN.