Palestinian supporters attack Jews in Los Angeles during the Gaza conflict, May 18, 2021. (Screen grab/YouTube) (Screen grab/YouTube)
Los Angeles attack

Xavier Pabon and Samer Jayylusi charged in savage attack in widely seen video during Gaza conflict.

By Pesach Benson, United With Israel

The video stunned the American Jewish community. In May, during the Gaza conflict, masked Palestinian supporters violently attacked Jews eating at a Los Angeles sidewalk cafe.

Their offense?

Being Jewish.

The goons wore black and covered their faces. A cell phone video of the punches and thrown bottles was too fast and too blurry. It was difficult to imagine how police might catch the attackers.

But catch them they did.

Xavier Pabon, 30, of Banning, and Samer Jayylusi, 36, of Anaheim, were each charged Tuesday with two felony counts of assault by means of force likely to cause great bodily injury, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The charges also include a hate crime allegation.

The suspects were part of a pro-Palestinian caravan that stopped near Sushi Fumi on the city’s west side neighborhood of Beverly Grove where diners were eating at outdoor tables on May 18, police said.

Another diner told local news at the time that the assailants used anti-Semitic language while trying to determine who was Jewish. That diner, who said he wasn’t Jewish, added that he was pepper sprayed when he tried to break up the attack. The assailants came prepared.

Jayylusi was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, while Pabon will make his next court appearance Thursday, CBS 2 reported. It wasn’t immediately known if the men have attorneys.

In a separate incident that same evening in LA, two-cars of Palestinian supporters waving Palestinian flags chased an Orthodox Jew leaving an synagogue in the nearby Fairfax neighborhood. The man was nearly run over, but escaped without harm.

No arrests were made and it wasn’t confirmed if there was a connection between the two incidents.

Actually, there was common denominator between the two incidents.

Los Angeles Jews were being blamed for a war not of their making.

These, and numerous other assaults on Jews across North America and Europe laid bare the anti-Semitism of the attackers.

In the blurred frenzy of Pabon and Jayylusi’s video, one thing is eminently clear.

The two can’t claim — as apologists for anti-Semitism are wont to do — that their hatred isn’t for Jews, but only for Zionists.

Associated Press contributed to this report.