An Israeli man living in the United States said he was assaulted by a group of about 20 pro-Palestinian demonstrators while visiting Santa Monica Pier on Sunday, in the latest incident highlighting tensions tied to the war in Gaza.
Ariel Yaakov Marciano, 24, who moved to the U.S. from Israel earlier this year, told Ynet he was in Los Angeles to attend his cousin’s bar mitzvah when he encountered protesters waving Palestinian and Mexican flags at the popular tourist site.
Israeli national Ariel Marciano attacked by pro-Palestinian crowd in Los Angeles
Marciano, who was wearing a Star of David necklace and speaking Hebrew with another Israeli man from Las Vegas, said the crowd recognized them as Israeli. “One of them hit me from behind on the head, and I started bleeding,” he said. “Others pushed me, tore the chain from my neck and when I pushed one attacker, they all jumped on me.”
Video he later posted to Instagram showed blood streaming down his face as he urged Israelis in Los Angeles to join him at the pier, saying he had been ambushed.
Marciano said that as he was on his way to the police station shouting “God bless Israel,” someone sprayed him with pepper spray.
He claimed one assailant brandished a knife and told him, “You’re lucky I don’t stab you.” Marciano also worried about the Las Vegas man’s family, including a son in a wheelchair with muscular dystrophy. “I don’t know what happened to them,” he said.
Marciano said police did not intervene, telling him the crowd was too large to control. “I can’t blame them,” he added.
The assault came a week after several Israelis reported being attacked while walking home from synagogue in the Wilshire and Crescent Heights area. Eyal Dahan, whose two sons serve in the IDF, said a group demanded he shout “Free Palestine.” Instead, he responded, “Long live the IDF.” He said someone punched him, knocking off his kippah and that another man with them was cut on the hand. Police nearby did not act, he said, though the incident should qualify as a hate crime.
Dahan later identified one of the attackers in Marciano’s video as the same man who assaulted him. “They’re paid $150 for three hours to protest. They’re very violent,” he claimed.
Marciano has personal ties to the war in Gaza: his cousin Guy Illouz was abducted from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 and later killed in Hamas captivity. Another cousin was killed in the 2014 Gaza war. Despite the assault, Marciano said he will not hide his Jewish identity. “I lost one cousin in this war and another in Operation Protective Edge. I won’t take off my Star of David.”
Hours after the attack, Marciano was sitting in a restaurant trying to calm down when a man he did not know approached and handed him back the necklace. “He was a Chinese man who told me, ‘Here, this is yours.’ I don’t know how he found me, but the chain came back. I will keep wearing it.”