In November 2023, in a suburb of Los Angeles, a few weeks after the Hamas attack in Israel, there were dueling demonstrations, with some demonstrators denouncing Hamas and others supporting the Hamas attack on October 7. At one point, a Palestinian in the crowd denouncing Israel and praising Hamas, Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, bashed a megaphone on the head of a 69-year-old Jewish man, Paul Kessler, who was demonstrating for Israel. The elderly Kessler fell backward, hitting his head on the sidewalk, and later died of his injuries. The man responsible for his death was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Now a plea deal has been reached, and both Jewish groups, and the prosecutors, have expressed their outrage at what amounts to a slap on the wrist. More on this hideous outcome can be found here: “Jewish leaders lament ‘woefully inadequate’ sentence of California man who killed Jewish activist,” by Grace Gilson, JTA, May 8, 2026:
…a plea deal reached Tuesday… is expected to spare the man charged with causing the 2023 death of Jewish protester Paul Kessler from being sent to prison. Instead, Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji would face no more than a year in county jail.
Alnaji, 53, of Moorpark, California, admitted to hitting Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish pro-Israel activist, in the head with a megaphone during dueling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations in a Los Angeles suburb in November 2023.
Kessler later died of his injuries, and his death became the first tied to demonstrations surrounding the war in Gaza in the United States.
On Tuesday, Alnaji pleaded guilty to all charges related to Kessler’s death, including felony involuntary manslaughter and felony battery causing serious bodily injury, after initially pleading not guilty.
While the maximum sentence for his charges is four years in state prison, the court indicated that, as a result of the guilty plea, it is likely to place Alnaji on formal probation with no more than 365 days in county jail. A county jail sentence is generally considered less severe than time in state prison and is served locally, often with possibilities for work release, electronic monitoring or early release….
Alnaji may, if given the one-year jail sentence, be let out for work release, or let out with electronic monitoring, or even given early release from an already preposterously short sentence. Who knows? He may be out of prison in a few months, if he exhibits “good behavior.”
Alnaji, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, will only go to a jail, not a prison, where conditions are much harsher. Furthermore, he will serve at most a year, and probably a good deal less. And this for smashing a heavy object on the head of an elderly man who was quietly protesting, causing his death.
Rabbi Noah Farkas, the president and chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, told JTA in a statement that Kessler’s death carried deep significance because “not only was he the first Jew to die during the Israel-Hamas protest movement after October 7th, but he did so while peacefully supporting his people.”
Farkas said he, too, wished Alnaji would be penalized more harshly, but that he saw a benefit in the case reaching a conclusion.
“We mourn his loss and welcome the admission of guilt for this heinous crime,” Farkas said about Kessler. “While we would have liked a harsher sentence that better reflects the pain of [the] Kessler family, we respect the legal process. Our hope is that today’s news helps bring closure to his family and gives our community the ability to demonstrate safely.”
Rabbi Farkas is glad because this verdict brings “closure”? Really? It is not “closure,” but a source of permanent anguish to the Kessler family, and to all those who thought justice would be done but were disabused of that hope when the verdict for this Alnaji, convicted of “involuntary manslaughter,” was announced. One wonders what would have been the result if the roles had been reversed, and a Jewish demonstrator had smashed a Muslim demonstrator on the head with a megaphone, leading to his hitting his head on the pavement and dying. I don’t think that he would get off with at most a year in a county jail, with possible early release. I think that Muslims would have organized giant demonstrations outside the courthouse, demanding that “the Zionist killer,” as they would call him, be given“at least ten years in prison for his Islamophobic and hateful murder of an innocent Muslim.”
David Lakatos says
Judges enabling criminals and terrorists.
OLD GUY says
Well the judge was looking out for the tax payer. A long term jail sentence is vary expensive and they can’t apply a judgement of an eye for an eye the leftest would go nuts. Besides it would take 30 yrs. of appeals before the court would overturn the death penalty. We the tax payer and victims of this system are the losers.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Is there a way Abdel Fattah Aljani can be cancelled once he is released from prison? Such as stores refusing to sell him anything, clubs (such as gyms) refusing him admission, et al (Like used to be done to Richard Spencer)? Essentially, make his life so miserable that he tries to move to Qatar or whichever other jihad nation would take him
John1 says
Maybe it’s time for vigilante justice…..
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, if someone hunted him down and I was on the jury of that person, I’d secretly plan to acquit
rubiconcrest says
They only silver lining in the decision is that he has been found guilty and can now be subject to civil lawsuits.
Winston 101 says
Does this verdict and sentencing discourage or encourage the criminal behavior the perpetrator engaged in?
Does it show to the citizens that the government will protect your right to peaceful assembly?
If someone engages in criminal behavior, and you die as a result, will your death be treated seriously
or dismissively?
In this case, there is a clear message from the government in California telling you – you are on your own. The State will only do what is minimally necessary to seem to bring justice for you. You will only receive performative justice. This is the State violating its social contract with its citizens.
This is a clear case of the State, by its dismissive actions, encouraging Jihadi crimes.
Winston 101 says
Clarification: This “crime” is Jihad by a Jihadi against an Infidel, in this case a Jew, masking merely as “criminal behavior” so we don’t notice the nature of what is really happening.
ploome says
and crimes against Jews
“Although Jews only make up around 2 percent of the U.S. population, reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crimes comprised 15 percent of all hate crimes
and 68 percent of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2023, which is consistent with patterns from prior years.”
Why is that?
Winston 101 says
ploome,
Not sure if you were being rhetorical, so just in case. . .
I think that what I call “generic antisemitism”, that leads to crimes against Jews,
is based on raw Envy.
Jews tend to be extraordinarily successful in proportion to their population. The unsuccessful can’t explain this disparity. It can’t be Jewish scholarship culture, talent and hard work – it must be something nefarious.
Furthermore, the history of the Jews ruins the “victim narrative”. The millennia long history of suffering and they still survive and succeed.
If oppression is the source of a groups failure how do you explain the continuing success of the Jews?
Now join that generic antisemitism with the current battle of Islam Vs. the West.
Compare, no oil, Israel to Saudi Arabia or any other Islamic state. Now take away Saudi Arabia’s oil.
The contrast would be stark and embarrassing.
And how embarrassing it is for Islam that, even in 1948, with 5 Islamic states against tiny nascent Israel they lost that war and all the wars to the present date. If, Allah is real, and Islam is true, how does that keep happening?
It was with the invention of “the Palestinians” in 1964, that Islam was able to join with the anti-West Left in its “Socialist liberation movements”. Islam could join with the Marxists in their 40 year march through the U.S. institutions.
Islam’s long historical, Quran-commanded, hatred of Jews is now combined with the Left’s anti-West oppressor, i.e. White Capitalist vs. oppressed, i.e. non-White Socialist world view.
Socialism’s beating heart is also raw Envy.
People who are envious and hateful of the successful join with Islam’s foundational hatred of the Jews who rejected Islam from the time of Mohammed. These two strains of virulent Envy join in the current, heightened antisemitism on full display today.
Islam will not, of course, stop with the Jews, the Saturday people. Islam will continue to the Christians, the Sunday people and all Infidels. It is my view that, for now, antisemitism is how Islam hopes to start its Jihad inside the West.
David Lakatos says
Spot on 100% accturate.
jerry glenn says
California surges in the national Islamopandering derby.
Calexit.
David Lakatos says
Fighting the enemy used to be called war. Now it’s called racism.
David Lakatos says
A socialist is like a parasite that feeds off its host until it’s dead.
Ralph says
No matter the horribly mild sentence, the life of one old Jew is worth more than the lives of all the Muslims on earth.
gravenimage says
A Slap on the Wrist for the Muslim Responsible for the Death of a Jew in California
…………………………………………….
Just appalling–and I live here.