SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Antisemitic graffiti was found in San Francisco after a pro-Palestine rally Saturday.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins tweeted Sunday saying the suspects were unknown but assumed to have been associated with the protest. That statement did not sit well with protest organizers.
The DA deleted that tweet on Monday after she said she received several concerns from the Muslim and Arab communities about how the tweet could be interpreted.
Words such as “Death 2 Israel” and “Kill a Settler” were spray-painted across a Bank Of America building in San Francisco. The graffiti was found after thousands marched down Market Street calling for the freeing of Palestinians along the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with the terrorist group Hamas for more than a week.
“There’s a genocide happening in Gaza right now. Over 1,000 children, 2,700 civilians have been confirmed killed by the Israeli military,” said Wassim Hage with the Arab Resource Organizing Center, who was in the crowd of protestors.
Jenkins’ tweet about the graffiti Sunday night, saying her office assumed the person responsible was associated with the pro-Palestine rally, didn’t sit well with Ariel Koren with the group Jewish Voices For Peace. Koren attended Saturday’s protest in solidarity with Palestinians.
“The statement that she put out, it insights Islamophobia. It’s also anti-Semitic because she’s telling lies about the Jewish community when thousands of us that were part of the Jewish community, when thousands of us as Jewish people were a part of that protest,” she said.
Jenkins said this after deleting her post on Monday:
“I listened and understand their concerns and as a result, deleted the tweet. I do not support violence. The clearly anti-Semitic graffiti has no place in SF and we must be mindful that a person who chooses to engage in hateful acts is not representative of an entire community/faith.”
“Vilify our peace march as anything but a peace march is extremely reckless right now and we consider it an invitation to violence,” Hage said.
District Attorney Jenkins also acknowledged how the graffiti has the potential to lead to retaliation or an escalation in hateful conduct against the Jewish community. President of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area Tyler Gregory says he believes the graffiti did come from Saturday’s protest, but that doesn’t mean Palestinians should be equated with terrorism.
“Not all protestors hate the Jewish people, not all protestors support Hamas, although some of them do. So the same way we wouldn’t want people to think our community is monolithic, so too shouldn’t we turn the protestors into a monolith,” he said.
Jenkins said Monday that her office is committed to ensuring the safety of all communities and that anyone caught committing a hate crime will be held accountable.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/SUVMeqs
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