California man gets 1 year in jail time for 2023 death of pro-Israel protester

A California man who pleaded guilty to the 2023 death of Jewish protester Paul Kessler was sentenced Tuesday to one year in county jail and two years of felony probation, the Ventura County District Attorney announced.

Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, 54, of Moorpark, California, pleaded guilty in May to felony involuntary manslaughter and felony battery causing serious bodily injury for the death of Kessler, as part of a plea deal that was sharply criticized by local Jewish leaders.

Alnaji admitted to striking 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. His death became the first tied to U.S. demonstrations surrounding the war in Gaza.

“There are no words to describe the pain of losing a husband in such a sudden and violent way,” Kessler’s wife wrote in an impact statement prior to the sentencing. “The grief is relentless. The silence in our house, the absence of his voice, his companionship, his love and the future we had planned together are losses I carry with me every day.”

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Derek Malan said during the June 30 sentencing that he had received 132 emails from community members regarding the case, many of which advocated for a harsher sentence for Alnaji and called the case a murder or hate crime.

Malan said that while he understood that the Jewish community could see his sentence as a devaluing of human life, the case was not “a Jewish life versus a Muslim life,” according to the VC Star.

“When we try to equate a life with a number, we fail,” Malan said during the June 30 sentencing, according to the VC Star. “The rules do support a grant of probation in this case.”

The Anti-Defamation League of California decried the ruling in a post on Instagram, writing that it was “little more than a slap on the wrist and not in proportion with the enormity of this crime.”

“It’s especially concerning that the Court spent much of the sentencing hearing expressing dismay with the letters received from the Jewish community and asking the DA’s Office to correct the perceptions of those who expressed how this woefully inadequate sentence would impact the Jewish community,” the post continued.

Alnaji’s defense attorney, Ron Bamieh, told Malan that his client was a “good person,” and that the November 2023 incident was “isolated,” according to the VC Star. He also read aloud a letter Alnaji wrote to Malan.

“I never wanted to harm anyone,” Bamieh said, reading Alnaji’s letter. “The grief I carry from that day is something I will live with always.”

Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko objected to the sentencing of Alnaji in a statement Tuesday.

“Mr. Kessler lost his life in a violent attack that took him from his family and his wife of 43 years,” Nasarenko said. “Given the circumstances of this case and the death that resulted, we believe a state prison commitment was the appropriate and just sentence.”

Bamieh addressed the ruling in a post on Instagram Tuesday, writing that “Kessler’s death is a tragedy. Nothing about this case changes that, and Dr. Alnaji has never pretended otherwise.”

“The court was clear today: this was never a murder case —no intent to kill could be proven. It was never a hate crime — no evidence of hate,” Bamieh wrote. “It was a battery that led to an accidental, tragic death.”

Rabbi Noah Farkas, the president and chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, told JTA in a statement that the case was a “stark reminder that hateful rhetoric has tragic, real-world consequences.”

“While we had hoped for a sentence that more fully reflected the seriousness of the crime, we hope the outcome offers some comfort to Kessler’s family, friends, and the Jewish community,” Farkas said.