Van Jones Condemns Far-Left Protesters For Attacking Jews In LA

CNN political contributor Van Jones has harshly criticized far-left pro-Hamas protesters who attacked Jews outside a synagogue in southern California over the weekend. The incident occurred at the Adas Torah synagogue on Sunday, where protesters gathered to block entry and disrupt a peaceful pro-Israel rally.

“Listen, if you don’t like what’s happening in Gaza, it’s your right to protest. That’s not a problem. But you protest a policy. You don’t protest a people,” Jones said. “You don’t bum-rush a Jewish neighborhood and run up on a synagogue. That’s not protesting a policy. That’s protesting a people. And that is a cross of any line in America. And it has to be called out.”

Jones highlighted the ongoing trauma in the Jewish community, particularly in this neighborhood, which was the site of back-to-back hate crimes against Orthodox Jewish men last year. He emphasized that such actions against the community, especially at a synagogue, are not protests but violent acts akin to a “pogrom.”

“I think it’s a little bit naive for some of the people to think that if Israel would just suddenly just stop doing what it’s doing, that rainbows and bunnies and sunshine would break out over the Middle East, it would all be fine,” Jones added, stressing the complexity of the geopolitical situation.

Jones also called out the protesters for their behavior, asserting that how people treat their neighbors should not be complicated. “You don’t run up — I haven’t seen Jewish people running up on mosques with Israeli flags. If they did that, I’d be denouncing that, too,” he stated. He concluded by condemning actions targeting Jewish community centers, mosques, or restaurants as anti-Semitic acts rather than legitimate protests.