After pro-Israel extremists attacked pro-Palestine protesters who were opposing the illegal sale of stolen Palestinian land as real estate in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles, President Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland has announced that the FBI, the Justice Department, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California are targeting pro-Palestine protesters specifically in Los Angeles.
Garland echoed the disinformation campaign led by far-right actors which falsely accuses the pro-Palestine movement of being motivated by antisemitism rather than support for Palestinian lives. Garland compared anti-genocide social justice activists to Nazis in Europe, a framing pushed by hardcore fascist provocateurs online and in conservative media.
The Biden administration has repeatedly shared lies and disinformation about Palestinians and their supporters and these lies have been used to defend organized fascist violence by pro-Israel extremists groups, including the Jewish Defense League, an FBI designated terrorist group. Los Angeles is becoming a Petri dish for neoliberal autocracy. Now, dissent from social justice activists has been criminalized to an unprecedented level in contemporary politics.