Paul Kessler's Death: What We Know as Killing of Jewish Man Investigated

Paul Kessler died after allegedly being beaten when pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed in California.

People around the world are protesting amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, along with a ground assault and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is at war.

As of November 7, over 1,400 people had been killed in Israel, and an additional 242 were kidnapped and taken to Gaza as hostages. The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 10,300, including more than 4,200 children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, per the AP.

The Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office said Kessler's death was a homicide caused by a blunt-force head injury.

Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man, lived in Thousands Oaks, about 40 miles west of Los Angeles, with his wife, Cheryl.

According to a local synagogue, he was interested in Israel and peace in the Middle East.

Cheryl Kessler is believed to have worked previously in the insurance business and grew up in California.

Ventura County police are expected to hold a press conference at 10 a.m. Los Angeles time on Tuesday morning when they will give an update on the man arrested for the attack. Kessler died in hospital on Monday, a day after the alleged assault.

Kessler was waving an Israeli flag when pro-Palestinian demonstrators allegedly confronted his group. A pro-Palestinian protester allegedly beat Kessler over the head with a megaphone during the confrontation on Sunday.

Ventura police said that Kessler fell backward and hit his head on the ground during the confrontation.

"The Ventura County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident and has not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime," the medical examiner's office said.

Rabbi Michael Barclay, who leads nearby Temple Ner Simcha, told the Los Angeles Times that Kessler and his wife had attended High Holiday services at his synagogue, though they had not visited in several years. The synagogue is less than a mile away from where the protests were held.

Barclay said he did not know Kessler well but had exchanged email correspondence with him over the years and called him "a man committed to peace and committed to Israel."

He added that he had been in touch with both Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff and Thousand Oaks Police Chief Jeremy Paris about the criminal investigation. He emphasized the need to allow law enforcement to do its due diligence and cautioned against sharing unconfirmed information.

Barclay wrote in a series of posts on X—the platform formerly known as Twitter—that pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been "looking for violence, shouting profanities, and stopping cars" for the last three weekends since Hamas militants killed and kidnapped Israeli civilians on October 7.

Of the pro-Palestinian protesters who continued to chant beside where Kessler fell, Rabbi Barclay wrote: "We need to wait for what the police determine..but this is both disgusting and exactly how these people have behaved for the last 3 Sundays."

He said that there have been widely varying accounts of what happened before Kessler fell and pleaded with people to let police do their job before reaching a conclusion.

Ventura County Supervisor Jeff Gorell, whose district covers the location where the incident took place, said he'd been briefed by the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

"I'm heartbroken to hear of the tragic death of an elderly man today after having been struck at a protest in my district," Gorell wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Pro-Palestinian protesters could be seen chanting as Kessler was being loaded into an ambulance. One of them continued to use a megaphone to chant pro-Palestinian slogans while standing by a pool of blood where Kessler fell.

In a video recorded at the scene, a police officer can be seen repeatedly trying to persuade the man with the megaphone to move from the spot.

One woman, who was wearing a denim jacket embroidered with pro-Palestinian messages, was seen checking on Kessler's condition as he lay on the ground.

The alleged perpetrator could be seen talking to police after the alleged attack.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles said a pro-Palestinian protester hit Kessler with a megaphone during an "antisemitic crime."

"We are devastated to learn of the tragic death of an elderly Jewish man who was struck in the head by a megaphone wielded by a pro-Palestinian protester in Westlake Village," the federation said in a statement.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called for calm.

"CAIR-LA and the Muslim community stand with the Jewish community in rejecting any and all violence, antisemitism, Islamophobia, or incitement of hatred," it said.

Ventura County police said in a statement that the assault happened at about 3:20 p.m. on Sunday at the intersection of Westlake Boulevard and Thousand Oaks Boulevard, where simultaneous pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests were taking place.

The Anti-Defamation League called on law enforcement "to launch a thorough investigation to determine who is responsible."

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