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Violent incidents in reaction to the Israel–Hamas war

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Since 7 October 2023, numerous violent incidents prompted by the Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israel–Hamas war have been reported worldwide. They have accompanied a sharp increase in global antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as anti-Israeli sentiment and anti-Palestinian sentiment or broader anti-Arab sentiment.[1] Other people and groups have also been targeted, such as the Sikhs,[2] who are commonly mistaken to be Muslims by their attackers.[3][a]

Attacks against Jews and Israelis

Main article: Antisemitism during the Israel–Hamas war

United States

Further information: Death of Paul Kessler

On 25 October, a man broke into a Jewish family's home in Los Angeles yelling "Free Palestine" and "Kill Jews".[4]

On 3 November, CNN reported on the arrest of 20 year-old Jordanian national for plotting a terrorist attack against the Jewish community in Houston, Texas.[5]

Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man, was fatally injured in an dispute between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine demonstrators on November 5 in Westlake Village, Los Angeles County, California. Initial reports indicated that he fell and hit his head on the ground, and may have been hit by a megaphone used by a pro-Palestine demonstrator, although police did not initially confirm that. As of November 7, a suspect was detained and later released.[6][7]

On 4 February, a Palestinian migrant ripped two pro-Israel flags from a home in Hewlett, New York. When the homeowner confronted him and attempted to take back the flags, the man punched him and put him into a chokehold while yelling pro-Palestine phrases. When the homeowner could no longer fight back, the man stomped on the flags and stole them. The man was arrested later and charged with a hate crime.[8][9][10]

Europe

On 18 October two Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in the Mitte neighborhood of central Berlin. One person was arrested.[11] On 21 October an explosive device was detonated near the Israeli embassy in Cyprus, four men of Syrian origin were detained.[12]

On 4 November, a Jewish woman was stabbed in Lyon, France and a swastika was graffitied on her home.[13]

On 11 December, a 16-year-old was arrested by Austrian police for planning to attack a synagogue in Vienna.[14]

On 31 January, a potentially dangerous device was found near the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, prompting a large evacuation in the surrounding area. The incident was investigated by the national bomb squad.[15]

In France, sites vandalized include schools, nurseries, and The Wall of the Righteous, a memorial that honors individuals who saved Jews during the Nazi occupation of France.[16] The incident was described as antisemitic by French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France Yonathan Arfi, and the Union of Jewish Students in France.[17] On 17 May 2024, a synagogue in Rouen was set on fire by an Algerian arsonist, damaging the synagogue significantly.[18][19]

On March 2, 2024, an Orthodox Jew was stabbed by a 15-year old in Zürich, Switzerland.[20] The teen later said that he was doing the attack on behalf of Al-Aqsa, alluding to Jihadist concepts.[21]

On 3 June 2024, a suspect of foreign nationality was detained in Romania after throwing Molotov cocktail outside Israeli embassy in Bucharest which caused no damage and casualties. According to the embassy he was of Syrian origin and allegedly threatened to ignite himself.[22]

On 4 July, Greek anti-terrorism police arrest seven people, including foreign nationals, over arson attacks against an Israeli-owned hotel and a synagogue in central Athens.[23]

Canada

On 7 November, there was an attempted arson attack against Congregation Beth Tikvah synagogue and a Jewish Community Center in Montreal.[24][25]

On 9 November in Montreal, two Jewish children's schools, Talmud Torah Elementary and Yeshiva Gedola, were targeted with gunfire overnight, leaving bullet holes.[26][27] On 12 November, Yeshiva Gedola was struck with gunfire for a second time. In a press conference that day, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said, "The Jewish community in Montreal is currently under attack."[28]

Shortly after midnight on 27 November, a Jewish community center belonging to the Jewish Community Council of Montreal was attacked with a Molotov cocktail.[29]

Russia

Main article: 2023 antisemitic riots in the North Caucasus

Since 28 October, a wave of antisemitic attacks occurred in the North Caucasus region of Russia.[30]

Middle East and North Africa

On 8 October, a police officer fired his gun into a group of bus passengers in Alexandria, Egypt.[31] The attack occurred during a trip past Pompey's Pillar.[32] Two Israeli tourists and an Egyptian tour guide were killed, while another Israeli was moderately wounded.[33] The suspect was subsequently taken into custody.[34]

On 17 October the El Hamma synagogue in El Hamma, Tunisia, a historic synagogue and the burial site of 16th-century Kabbalist Rabbi Yosef Ma'aravi, was severely damaged during anti-Israel riots, with hundreds of people filmed setting fire to the building.[35][36][37] On the same day, the Or Zaruah synagogue in Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, was attacked by a mob chanting "murderous Israel" while waving Palestinian flags.[38][39][40]

On 7 May 2024, Israeli-Canadian businessman Ziv Kipper, head of Egyptian food exporter OK Group, was fatally shot in Alexandria by a group named "Vanguards of Liberation - the Martyr Mohammad Salah group," a reference to the Egyptian police officer who fatally shot three Israeli soldiers. The group, who described Kipper as a Mossad agent, said the murder was in retaliation to "massacres in Gaza" and the Rafah offensive.[41][42][43]

East Asia

On 13 October an Israeli diplomat was stabbed in Beijing, China,[44] for which a foreign suspect was arrested.[45]

Latin America

On 8 November 2023, two men were arrested by Brazilian police in São Paulo following a warning from the Mossad that Hezbollah was planning an attack against the country's Jewish community. Searches were also conducted in Brasilia and Minas Gerais in connection with the alleged plot.[46]

Attacks against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims

See also: Anti-Palestinianism during the Israel–Hamas war and Islamophobia during the Israel–Hamas war

United States

Midwest

Further information: Killing of Wadea al-Fayoume

Outside Chicago, Illinois, a man while reportedly yelling "You Muslims must die" stabbed a 32-year-old Palestinian-American woman, seriously injuring her, and stabbed her six-year-old son 26 times to death. Detectives said the man targeted the family because they were Muslim, and he was upset about the conflict.[47][48][49][50][51]

On October 19, a man in Dearborn, Michigan was arrested by local police after posting on Facebook a credible threat proposing acts of violence against Palestinian-Americans in Dearborn, which has the largest population of Arab Americans in the United States. The man had posted an open invitation to "hunt Palestinians" and claimed to be part of a Jewish group protecting Israel.[52]

West

The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Los Angeles called for an investigation to be opened by the University of California, Los Angeles after a group of men entered a space used by students watching a webinar of an ongoing panel titled "The Crisis in Palestine". The men reportedly damaged students property, verbally assaulted them calling them "terrorists" and physically threatening them before campus security removed them from the area. One of the group was allegedly spotted later at a on-campus vigil for Israel.[53][54]

On 4 November, an Arab Muslim student at Stanford University in California was hit by car driven by a white man who yelled, "fuck you and your people." The incident was investigated as a hate crime.[55]

East

Further information: 2023 shooting of Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont

Chapters of CAIR have reported other instances of Islamophobia since the war began with two alleged assaults' in Brooklyn, New York City and an individual who pointed a gun at pro-Palestine demonstrators outside of the Pennsylvania state capitol.[56] On October 28, a Princeton University staff member who took issue with a message assaulted a student at a protest.[57]

On 25 November, three Palestinian college students from Brown University, Haverford College, and Trinity College in Burlington, Vermont were confronted and shot and wounded by a white man, leaving one of the students in critical condition.[58]

On 4 January 2024, an imam in New Jersey was killed.[59]

On 19 January, it was reported by Columbia University students that a hazardous chemical was sprayed at or near student protesters, while a pro-Palestinian divestment now rally was held. At least ten protestors reported physical symptoms with three seeking medical attention. The substance was identified by some protestors as Skunk, manufactured by the Israeli firm Odortec and has been used against demonstrators in the West Bank.[60]

South

In February 2024, a 23-year-old Palestinian-American man was stabbed after attending a pro-Palestinian rally in Austin, Texas.[61] Police called the stabbing a potential "bias-motivated incident".[62] In a statement relayed by his father, the young man stated, "Mr. President, Mr. Joe Biden, I blame you for what happened to me."[63] The stabbing was deemed a hate crime.[64]

In June 23, 2024, a Jewish woman in Euless, Texas attempted to drown a 3-year-old Muslim Palestinian child after making racist statements to the child's mother.[65][66][67] She is currently out on a $25,000 bond for attempted capital murder and $15,000 for injury of the child.[68] The representative for Euless, Salman Bhojani - who is Muslim himself - condemned the incident, saying "Hate has no place in Euless, District 92, or anywhere in our great state".[68]

Europe

In Europe, many Muslims fear anti-Muslim reprisals due to the Israel–Hamas war and concurrent Islamic terrorist attacks (such as the Arras school stabbing and Brussels shooting, which occurred in October 2023); the war and the attacks have emboldened some far-right voices in the western world that assert Muslims as a fifth column and an internal enemy to Europe's security.[69]

Australia

A homeowner in Sydney was threatened with a bomb attached to his car after flying a Palestinian flag in front of his home.[70]

Self-inflicted violence

On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, died after setting himself on fire outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. Immediately prior to the live-streamed act, Bushnell said that he was protesting against "what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers" and declared that he "will no longer be complicit in genocide", after which he doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself on fire.[71] As he burned, Bushnell repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine" while one Secret Service officer pointed a gun at him and two others attempted to extinguish him.[72][73]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Misidentification has become more common in the United States since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

References

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