A San Diego County man was arrested Monday in connection with an alleged assault on a Jewish man near a synagogue in the Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles two years ago.<\/p>\n
Zaid Gitesatani, 28, of Carlsbad, pleaded not guilty to one count of hate crime at his arraignment Monday in Los Angeles federal court.<\/p>\n
U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael B. Kaufman ordered him released on $10,000 bond. A tentative trial date was scheduled for July 14.<\/p>\n
According to the indictment, a real estate agency known as My Home in Israel advertised an event scheduled for June 23, 2024, at the Adas Torah Synagogue in Los Angeles\u2019 Pico-Robertson neighborhood. The event was to promote land for sale in Israel.<\/p>\n
Several pro-Palestinian groups then planned and advertised a protest to take place at the event. One of those advertisements said protesters would \u201cstand against settler expansion,\u201d court papers show.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege Gitesatani traveled to Los Angeles to attend the protest.<\/p>\n
On the afternoon of the event, a Jewish man whose name was not revealed in court papers was walking his dog near the synagogue when Gitesatani approached from behind and punched him in the jaw, according to federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Gitesatani then walked away and retreated into the crowd, the indictment contends.<\/p>\n
On the same day, Gitesatani allegedly posted to his Instagram account a screenshot of the assault, with a message that read, \u201cWhooped the Zios today and we took their flag,\u201d along with two images of himself displaying his bruised knuckles following the assault, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendant\u2019s conduct, if proven, is a serious violation of the law \u2014 every American deserves to live without fear of violence based on who he is or how he worships,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting such crimes of hate and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DOJ alleges that in the days following the assault, Gitesatani had an exchange via Instagram with another user regarding the attack. Gitesatani allegedly posted, \u201cI whopped 2 zios,\u201d \u201cI swung good on them\u201d and \u201cIt was satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is also alleged to have posted on Instagram a still image of his assault on the man with the caption, \u201cThe Chosen People sometimes need a good smack to wake up,\u201d according to the indictment filed in downtown Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
If convicted, Gitesatani could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, prosecutors noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A San Diego County man was arrested Monday in connection with an alleged assault on a Jewish man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[22714,2598,10753,166,723,69889,37488,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-322322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alleged","tag-assault","tag-charged","tag-county","tag-crime","tag-hate","tag-jewish","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}