On November 5, 2023, less than a month after the horrors of October 7, there were two simultaneous demonstrations taking place less than a mile from our synagogue. One was for Israel; the other was pro-Hamas. At the rally, Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jew, was approached by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator named Loay Alnaji, a 50-year-old “activist” who outweighed him by 80 pounds. When Kessler started filming Alnaji's verbal attacks on his phone, Alnaji hit Kessler with the bullhorn he was holding, knocking Kessler to the concrete. The injuries from the fall and the blow from the bullhorn ultimately resulted in Kessler's death a few hours later.
I wrote multiple articles about this, culminating in an article with the hopeful expression that justice would be served. I am friends with both the chief of police and the sheriff of Ventura County, who are both good men and were seeking to create a good case against Alnaji. Ultimately, after reviewing over 600 pieces of evidence, interviewing over 60 witnesses, and spending over 2,000 man-hours on research, an arrest was made. Alnaji, a Palestinian activist and professor at Moorpark College, was arrested.
Although law enforcement recommended a murder charge, District Attorney Erik Nasarenko decided instead to pursue a manslaughter charge. He believed it was a charge that could secure a conviction, whereas a murder charge would have been far more difficult to prove because of the available evidence — and lack thereof. Because of the stringent legal definitions, Erik was also unable to pursue a hate crime charge, but he assured local Jewish leaders that the manslaughter charge would probably lead to a conviction.
That was two years ago, and the world has moved on since then. The war in Israel continued; America became more involved with Iran; and social media influencers and Jew-haters like Tucker Carlson, Rashida Tlaib, Candace Owens, and Ilhan Omar have helped lead this nation into a level of anti-Semitism not seen before. Anti-Semitic riots broke out at University of California, Los Angeles and on college campuses across the country; violence has increased; and many Jews are now afraid to wear jewelry, clothing, or symbols identifying them as Jewish in many public places. And here in Ventura County, the Kessler case has continued.
For over two years, Alnaji has been out on bail while legal proceedings have continued, and he has remained an employee at Moorpark College, still receiving his full pay. Ryan Wright, the judge on the case, died of a heart attack in September, and a new judge, Derek Malan, was assigned to the case. On May 5, local authorities informed Jewish leadership that Alnaji was going to plead guilty in order to avoid a trial. On May 6, it was announced by Alnaji’s defense attorney, Ron Bamieh, that a plea deal had been struck and that Alnaji would receive a year of probation. Bamieh said there had been private conversations with Judge Malan, who had suggested this deal, which on the surface seems odd given that Malan was previously a prosecuting attorney and has always demonstrated a passion for seeking true justice against criminals.
Although Bamieh announced this to media, it is not clear that this is actually accurate.
Yes, Malan struck a deal of some sort, but the details have not been released, and nothing will be clear until the sentencing hearing on June 25. Because the charge was manslaughter, it carried a maximum penalty of four years in California, which would have been reduced to two years in prison under California law, possibly minus any credit for “time served.” The idea that this would be reduced to just one year of probation is obviously obscene, but there are a number of unknown factors:
A: Is Bamieh being honest about the deal?
B: Was there some reason the judge felt there would not actually be a conviction?
C: Was this the family’s wish so that they know they will be victorious in a civil suit?
The answers to these and other questions will become clearer over the next few weeks, and especially at the sentencing hearing in June. But this has been going on for 2½ years. For 2½ years the family, our community, and all Jewish Americans have been watching this case and wondering if our society values Jewish lives as much as others.
Consider for a moment the following. Let us suppose that there were two rallies on opposite street corners: one by the KKK and one by BLM. Imagine that one of the KKK racists struck a black activist with a bullhorn, and the man ultimately died as a result. Now let’s be honest…
This country would burn as it erupted in riots. State and federal politicians would be clamoring to demand justice. It would prompt the passage of legislation against racism, and the legal proceedings would likely have been completed in under six months, with the attacker serving years in prison.
But it wasn’t a black man, it was a Jew. The killer wasn’t a member of the KKK, he was a pro-Palestinian “fighter for freedom.” And many public figures, including Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Megyn Kelly, have been screaming antisemitic propaganda, blaming all the problems in our nation on “Israel” and “the Jews” while championing Islam.
I truly hope that what is being reported is not true, and that this is all the media machinations and manipulations of Alnaji’s defense attorney. I pray that Judge Malan will not accept some sort of deal like this, and that Alnaji will spend at least some time in prison for his crime. I encourage us all to wait until June before expressing outrage, and, if this deal is as reported, that the outrage is as large as it would be had another minority been killed.
For now, I think there are some important questions we all need to consider as Americans:
Are all lives in America considered equal? Do all lives matter, or do some matter "more"? Can the death of Jews be celebrated and encouraged (as in the image above from BLM) without ramifications?
When considering those questions, let us each look at our own rhetoric and actions. Have we been as incensed about the death of Paul Kessler, may his memory be a blessing, as we should have been? Is the death of another minority member treated differently than the death of this Jew?
And if that is the case—if Paul Kessler’s killer walks away and we do nothing about it—we all need to ask ourselves what we have let this country become, and what we want to do about it.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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