'Very traumatic': Medic describes how things went from bad to worse at L.A. synagogue protest

It wasn't the first pro-Palestinian protest he had attended in the months since the war broke out in Gaza, but it was definitely the most frightening, he said.

A physician based in Los Angeles, who requested anonymity because he fears reprisals, worked as a medic during Sunday's protest outside the Adas Torah synagogue in the predominantly Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood. During the hours-long melee, in which violent clashes broke out between pro-Palestinian supporters and pro-Israel counter-protesters, he treated at least 11 people, whose injuries ranged from chest pain and shortness of breath from inhaling pepper spray to a fractured arm.

"This was probably the scariest protest I've been to," he said. "It was very apparent that our police weren't there to protect us and that any acts of violence that occurred in front of them wouldn't be met with consequences. It was a very traumatic experience, and I'm still coming to grips with it."

The Los Angeles native volunteered to work as a medic after seeing a protest flier posted on the Instagram account for the Southern California chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement . Sunday's melee prompted politicians and Jewish community groups to condemn the protest outside the religious site as an act of antisemitism. Pro-Palestinian supporters, however, say the protest was a direct response to a real estate event at the synagogue advertised as providing information on "housing projects in all the best Anglo neighborhoods in Israel."

The ad that ran in Friday's Jewish Journal did not specify the location of the real estate, but pro-Palestinian protesters at a Monday news conference said it was an "illegal auction of stolen Palestinian land.”

According to an archive of the website for My Home in Israel, one of the companies listed on the advertisement, homes were listed for $435,000 to $4.1 million in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and in the West Bank territories of Efrat and Ariel. Much of the international community, including the U.S. and the U.N., says that settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.

On Sunday, the medic arrived at the synagogue to find protesters gathered near the entrance. Within 20 minutes, Los Angeles police officers showed up and formed two separate lines — one on the east side of the block and another on the west, cutting off access to the area where the pro-Palestinian supporters had parked their cars, he said. The protesters were effectively "sandwiched" between the counter-protesters and the police.

"That's when I began to realize how dangerous the situation was," he said.

The officers started pushing and using batons against the protesters to try to get the crowd to disperse, he said. The counter-protesters attacked the pro-Palestinian demonstrators several times with pepper spray, he said, adding that he also witnessed protesters use pepper spray in self-defense. During the fracas, he said, he didn't hear a dispersal order from the LAPD.

Some of the protesters tried to hold the line against the police, but the medic stayed away from the front, which is why he was surprised when an officer lunged at him and hit him with a baton in his left rib, he said.

"I yelled that I was a medic, but I got a blank face in response," he said. "There was no regret, no apology, no advice or any guidelines." The medic hadn't been wearing any clothing that indicated he was a doctor, but he was carrying a bag with him that held first-aid supplies.

Interim LAPD Chief Dominic Choi previously confirmed that a "mobile field force" showed up at the scene and tried to disperse the crowd. Choi also said the protesters had "attempted to block the entrance of the synagogue." The LAPD referred questions regarding use of force and allegations that they didn't intervene in the violence to a department news release about the protest, which didn't address those topics.

The medic said he treated at least 11 protesters, including seven victims of pepper spray attacks. One woman was sprayed three times in the face by counter-protesters as she chanted on a megaphone. He treated another person who complained of chest pain and shortness of breath after inhaling pepper spray. Another person suffered a right arm fracture after being struck with a police baton. Three people came to him with bruising: One was hit on the cheekbone by a counter-protester, another was punched on the chin, and the third was struck on the right forearm. One protester was pushed to the ground and smacked with wooden sticks on his back.

"There were a lot of people struggling to stay safe," the medic said. "I was not only treating acute injuries but talking to the organizers and reminding them that it was no longer a productive and safe action and an escape plan needed to be initiated."

Around 1:30 or 2 p.m., the medic said, he and a group of about 80 to 100 protesters decided to retreat, but because they were blocked from reaching their cars by the police line, they had to use side streets through the neighborhood.

For more than an hour, a group of Israel supporters chased the protesters, sometimes confronting and getting into violent clashes with the pro-Palestinian group, he said. Pepper spray was taken out and used repeatedly. He recalled one person from the pro-Israel side yelling out, "We have the bullets, you have the blood."

He said he was finally able to break away from the larger group and get back to his car, parked about a block away from the synagogue.

Before Sunday's protest, the doctor had helped out with the pro-Palestinian encampments at UCLA and USC, he said, volunteering in the medical tent and teaching protesters basic first aid and how to respond to medical emergencies.

He said he was shocked on Sunday at how the violence unfolded right in front of police, who did little to intervene.

“It’s a microcosm of the violent systems that are occurring in Palestine,” he said, referring to the LAPD's ties with the Israel Defense Forces. “It’s almost like the clashes that had occurred in Pico last Sunday were a reflection of the violence enacted by both settlers and the Israeli Defense Forces and highlighted the connections our systems here have to that violence.”

The LAPD has faced scrutiny for its ongoing relationship with the IDF. Critics note that LAPD personnel have studied and trained with Israeli security forces accused of state-sanctioned violence against civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with the LAPD even sending bomb squad technicians to learn from their Israeli counterparts.

After Sunday's violence, those in the crowd supporting Israel also criticized the police for not intervening.

Talia Regev, 43, who said she came to the protest "to make sure things wouldn't get out of hand," was speaking to police officers when, she said, she turned around and witnessed her friend Naftoli Sherman fall to the ground.

Sherman, 25, told a Times reporter that he was punched in the left eye by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator. As he fell to the ground, some in the crowd tried to pull the man who punched him away from him while others tried to pile on top of them. When he finally got up, the left side of his face was bleeding, and his nose was broken. He walked over to the officers and asked them to call an ambulance or let him through the line, but they remained in place and told him to use side streets.

Eventually, Sherman said, he walked around the police line and went to a nearby hospital, where his nose was reset.

Regev said she stood between combatants in an effort to break up fights. She also saw someone pick up a chair and was able to talk them out of using it. Multiple pro-Palestinian protesters thanked her for trying keep the peace during the protest, she said. During the fracas, she begged officers to stop the fighting but was told that they couldn't do anything without the permission of their sergeant.

“I appreciate that [the police] were there," Regev added, "but they didn’t help."

A pro-Israel demonstrator who was carrying a spiked pole was arrested, cited and released, and there were two other reports of battery, according to the LAPD. A pro-Palestinian protester also used a chemical irritant against at least two officers, which the department is investigating, Choi said.

At a public-security briefing Wednesday, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and LAPD Cmdr. Steve Lurie denied the allegation that police were told to do nothing. Lurie said no officials gave an order to LAPD officers to "stand down and slow or stop any action" during Sunday's protest.

Lurie accused those gathered outside the synagogue of displaying "anger, vitriol and violence." A police liaison to the city's Jewish community, Lurie said local officials should consider whether blocking access to a place of worship during a protest should be viewed as an act of hate that could be prosecuted.

“It feels to me like we’re moving into an area where that specific action could be considered a hate crime," Lurie said, "so we’re going to look into what might be filing criteria for that."

The demonstration sparked condemnation from local as well as national elected officials, including President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American,” Biden said in a statement. “Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship — and engaging in violence — is never acceptable.”

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky introduced a motion during a Tuesday L.A. City Council meeting to find more resources for security services at places of worship.

In response to the allegations of antisemitism, Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in L.A., said the protest “was in response to the blatant violations of both international law and human rights from agencies that seek to make a profit selling brutally stolen Palestinian land.”

The medic said it was "deliberately misleading" to label the protest as antisemitic.

"This action occurred because of a real estate event selling Palestinian land and building illegal settlements," he said. "We have Jewish protesters who were involved in this protest, and it's important that we keep protecting our Jewish brothers and sisters. Antisemitism is very real, and it's important to keep each other accountable."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .