Another anti-semitic attack in America raises tensions around Jewish communities

ITV News

2 days ago

ITV News US Correspondent Dan Rivers reports as the latest anti-semitic attack in the US sharpens the debate around Trump's mass deportations
For months, Jewish residents in the small town of Boulder, Colorado, have been staging peaceful rallies to draw attention to the plight of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
But on Sunday their demonstration was violently interrupted as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman started throwing petrol bombs and wielding a homemade flamethrower at them.
His rampage left eight of them injured, some with severe burns.
Among those hurt, an 88-year-old woman who had survived the Holocaust.
Soliman made no attempt to flee the scene, giving himself up to police in scenes reminiscent of the attack last week outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC.
There, a gunman who'd just shot dead two Israeli embassy staff, waited for the police to arrive and didn't resist arrest, as he shouted pro-Palestinian slogans.
Both incidents serve to highlight the growing violence towards Jewish communities in the United States as a result of the turbulent and distressing events in the Middle East.
A sense of outrage and helplessness has gripped Arab communities here as they watch the daily appalling death toll from Gaza.
But now that collective exasperation is giving rise to a handful of extremists targeting Jews in acts of sickening violence.
The attacks have been condemned by the vast majority of Arab Americans, but it hasn't stopped Donald Trump from exploiting the violence to justify a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian foreigners.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said Soliman had outstayed his visa, and Trump claimed he had come into America as a result of 'Biden's ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly'.
In a similar vein, the Trump government has sought to deport pro-Palestinian students who took part in protests, even if they have repeatedly insisted their actions were peaceful.
In some cases, students with a green card, giving them a permanent right to live and work in America, have faced court proceedings to kick them out.
These cases are the subject of bitter legal battles, focusing on the very nature of freedom of speech and the right to protest.
This latest attack is likely to sharpen the debate around Trump's mass deportations, which he is seeking to link directly to the ongoing war in the Middle East.