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Israeli Consulate condemns flag burning at Los Angeles protest

The mission denounced the destruction of an Israeli flag at a May Day demonstration and urged officials to condemn the act and pursue legal action.

A pro-Palestinian protester waves a Palestinian flag during a "May Day Workers Unite!" march in Los Angeles, on May 1, 2025. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images.
A pro-Palestinian protester waves a Palestinian flag during a May Day Workers Unite! march in Los Angeles, California, on May 1, 2025.
Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images.

The Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles on Sunday condemned the burning of an Israeli flag during a May Day protest in the city, calling on local officials to denounce the act and pursue legal action.

“The Consulate General of Israel strongly condemns the burning of the Israeli flag at the Los Angeles May Day protest and calls on local officials to condemn this act of hatred and prosecute the violent assault on the flag of the one and only Jewish state,” the mission said in a statement posted on social media.

Video circulating online showed demonstrators setting fire to the flag during the protest and stomping on it after taking it from the driver of a slow-moving vehicle. The flag was burned as protesters chanted, “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

May Day, observed on May 1, is an international labor holiday marked by workers’ rights demonstrations, many of which are organized by left-wing activist groups.

On April 27, a Jewish man was assaulted while leaving Adas Torah, an Orthodox synagogue in Los Angeles, according to Israel Bachar, the Israeli consul general to the Pacific Southwest.

The attacker yelled “free Palestine” at the victim, the Israeli envoy told JNS.

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