Biden condemns ‘despicable’ surge in US antisemitic attacks
The president’s remarks come after incidents of violent assault in Los Angeles and arson in New York in response to events in Gaza
Michael Daventry is Jewish News’s foreign and broadcast editor
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have condemned a recent surge in antisemitic attacks across the United States in the wake of the conflict in Gaza.
The president and vice-president said acts of hate towards Jews had to be stopped and described recent incidents, which included a group of Jewish men being beaten on the streets of Los Angeles, as “despicable”.
Authorities are also investigating a possible hate crime in New York, where a man was charged with attempted arson at a Brooklyn synagogue and school.
“The recent attacks on the Jewish community are despicable, and they must stop. I condemn this hateful behaviour at home and abroad — it’s up to all of us to give hate no safe harbour,” Joe Biden tweeted on Monday night.
Harris added: “The surge in antisemitic attacks against the Jewish community in the U.S. and around the world is despicable—it must be called out, condemned, and stopped. As a country, we must stand united against hate of any kind.”
One man was arrested in connection to last week’s assault outside the sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, which allegedly occurred after a group of pro-Palestinian protesters began to throw objects at Jewish diners.
Police in the city were still working to identify the other suspects.
In New York, a 29-year-old named Ali Alaheri was charged with attempting to intentionally set fire to a yeshiva and synagogue in Brooklyn last week.
He is also accused of attacking a strictly-Orthodox man in a nearby street some hours later, NBC New York reported.
Prosecutors said: “With no provocation or prior interaction, the defendant began punching the victim in the head repeatedly. He took the victim’s cellular telephone, but subsequently dropped it.”
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