At LA rally for Israeli defense against Hamas rockets, 4 Muslims arrested for assault with a deadly weapon; Gunfire heard

A large Pro-Hamas / anti-Israel rally was held at the Israeli Consulate in West Los Angeles on July 8th to protest Israel's striking Gazan human-shields during its defensive curtailment of Hamas' rocket-launching. But judging from the groups returning for Sunday's counter-rally, the Muslims' and far-leftists' (revealed on their AnswerCoalition placards) over-riding goal is the irredentist, Muslim conquest of capitalistic, Jewish Israel.

Arab anti-Zionists brandished poles against Israel supporters on Wilshire Blvd in L.A.  (Photo: Aliya Slepkov-Dror)

Four Arab men were arrested at the pro-Israel peace rally in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles Sunday after pro-Palestinian protesters also turned up and the two sides clashed. At least one gunshot was fired by a Federal Protective Service officer, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office said. 


(Video courtesy Julie Bien)  

Five men, from Orange County and Jordan, drove their pickup truck alongside Israeli rallyers and taunted them with Palestinian flags. One of the pro-Israel supporters grabbed one of the flags and stepped on it. L.A. County Sheriff's officials told the L.A. Times:

The men then got out of the truck and confronted the group, and used the wooden sticks holding their flags to hit the demonstrators, said Sgt. Dave Valentine. “It was a pretty chaotic thing,” he said.

Police take Orange County antagonist Arabs into custody Sunday evening near UCLA

Witnesses said that several of the pro-Israel participants were hit by the poles, and one person was wounded.  When police who were already on the scene stepped in to break up the scuffle, the attackers tried to flee the scene in their pickup truck. Witnesses say a Federal Protective Service officer on-scene fired a warning shot into the air.

Los Angeles police caught up to the vehicle and arrested the men, identified as Mostadafa Gamaleldin Hafez, Hassan Mustapha Kreidieh, Mohammed Said Elkhatib and Fadi Ali Obeidallah.  They were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.  They were released after posting $30,000 bail on Monday. The Federal Protective Service agent was placed on administrative leave.  (Combined sources: L.A. Times, KNBC-TV, Jewish Journal). 

In the moments before the flag was grabbed, the men in the truck had been shouting taunts at the demonstrators and at Friedman and her car’s occupants, she told The Times.

The men were “taunting and threatening the ralliers [sic],” and thrusting wooden sticks in the direction of the protesters standing on the sidewalk next to the federal building, she said. “They were looking for a fight,” she said. Video and media photographs from the protest support her claim that the men were engaged in a verbal altercation with the protesters, who can be heard on one YouTube video yelling insults back at the men as they drove off. (L.A. Times  Joseph Serna, Matt Stevens).

The pro-Israel rally was organized by the Israel American Council and StandWithUs. Attendance was estimated at between 1200 and 1800 people. 

Several attendees shared their motivation to be there.  In this JooTube.TV video playlist, you can watch statements from Evan Sayet, on the leftist mainstream-media bias which incites anti-Israelism.

Ethan Samuels, an American Jew who was wounded by a Palestinian suicide-bomber at Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium Disco. 

Sarah was hit in the face with a rock thrown by a Palestinian. 

Shariff Hazan, converting from Sufi-Islam- is trying to alert Jews and Christians to the perils of Islam- which plagues and enslaves Africans to this day.

Avichai ben Shmuel shares info on another shooting in connection with the rally. 

Eric Golub, pundit and author, perceives the Jihad welcome on American streets.

Rabbi Moshe Parry tells the history of the Palestina which the pro-Palestine protesters are claiming to be there own.