Anti-Israel demonstrator sentenced to year in jail for manslaughter during 2023 protests

An anti-Israel protester who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of a pro-Israel demonstrator in California was sentenced to one year in county jail this week.

Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, 53, had an altercation with Paul Kessler, 69, in 2023 where he hit Kessler in the head with a megaphone. Kessler then fell backward and struck his head again and later died of his injuries in the hospital.

The incident took place against the backdrop of Israel-Hamas war tensions and concerns about antisemitism rising in the United States and more broadly. Alnaji was initially facing up to four years in prison in the case as he fought the charges against him, but the expected sentence was shortened when he pleaded guily in May.

Prosecutors in the case argued the one-year sentence is not enough, saying he should have been committed to state prison and received a longer period of confinement.

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

Kessler’s widow wrote a victim impact statement that said, in part, “There are no words to describe the pain of losing a husband in such a sudden and violent way.”

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“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 everyday,” she continued, according to the district attorney’s office.

Jonathan Oswaks, a friend of Kessler’s who was at the rally with him when the incident took place, spoke to the Jewish Journal when news of Alnaji’s expected sentence was released, calling it “deeply frustrating.”

“I’m not a lawyer, but the way this was handled raises serious questions for me. It sends a troubling message about accountability,” he told the outlet.

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Oswaks recounted moments from the event in his interview with the outlet, noting how the pro-Palestinian protesters vastly outnumbered them that day. He said after the pair had split up, people began approaching him and stood inches from his face yelling into his ear and using a megaphone.

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“When I tell you I had never experienced that level of hate in my life, I hadn’t,” he said. “I told them to get out of my space. They backed off briefly, then started again. I made it clear they needed to stay away, and eventually they did.”

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.