{"id":242,"date":"2026-07-01T15:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=242"},"modified":"2026-07-01T15:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:39:13","slug":"man-sentenced-to-just-one-year-in-county-jail-in-death-of-pro-israel-protester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=242","title":{"rendered":"Man Sentenced to Just One Year in County Jail in Death of Pro-Israel Protester"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pro-Palestinian protester was sentenced to one year in county jail and two years of probation on Tuesday after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and battery in the death of a Jewish man who he attacked at a California rally.<\/p>\n

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Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji, a professor at the local Moorpark College, struck 69-year-old Paul Kessler in the head with his megaphone at dueling pro-Israel and pro-Hamas demonstrations in November of 2023, weeks after the October 7 attack. Kessler then fell backwards and struck his head on the ground, and died the next day.<\/p>\n

The district attorney\u2019s office for Ventura County objected to Alnaji\u2019s sentence, arguing that he should be sentenced to state prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the circumstances of this case and the death that resulted, we believe a state prison commitment was the appropriate and just sentence,\u201d said District Attorney Erik Nasarenko.<\/p>\n

Video footage of the incident shows pro-Hamas demonstrators crossing the street to confront Kessler, who was waving an Israeli flag. The district attorney\u2019s office alleges that Alnaji escalated a verbal confrontation with Kessler, and struck him with the megaphone. A medical examination determined that Kessler sustained injuries to the chin, mouth, and eyes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are no words to describe the pain of losing a husband in such a sudden and violent way,\u201d Kessler\u2019s widow wrote in a statement to the court.<\/p>\n

Alnaji was not charged with a hate crime, though the Ventura County Sheriff told reporters that they had not ruled it out.<\/p>\n

Moorpark College, which is where Alnaji taught computer science, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

After the arrest, Fox News reported that Alnaji had shared a video on Instagram that compared the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas to civil rights leaders Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n

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The district attorney’s office for Ventura County objected to Alnaji’s sentence, arguing that he should be sentenced to state prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s"],"yoast_head":"\nMan Sentenced to Just One Year in County Jail in Death of Pro-Israel Protester - American Housing Transition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=242\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Man Sentenced to Just One Year in County Jail in Death of Pro-Israel Protester - 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