Leftists trying to stop Turning Point USA from spreading “hate” at the University of California, Berkeley are also showing “solidarity” with an anti-Israel protester facing a hate crime charge.
Students Organizing for Liberation (SOL), a group not registered with the university, encouraged supporters on Instagram to crash TPUSA’s Monday event, where demonstrators were later arrested in chaotic clashes. A day prior to the incident, SOL called on people to protest at an Oakland courthouse for Ali Rastegar, who was reportedly accused of stealing an Israeli flag from a group on Berkeley’s campus in April and yelling, “I’m going to burn this Jew flag on fire.”
Rastegar also said, “Fuck you, Zionist. I’ll fucking kill you,” and “You support genocide,” Berkeley police alleged, according to KTVU. He was charged in June with a hate crime, petty theft and resisting, obstructing or delaying a peace officer, pleading not guilty on all counts, court records show. An attorney is not yet listed for Rastegar.
SOL, which does not appear to have a website, did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment over Instagram.
“Stand in Solidarity with Ali Rastegar,” reads an SOL Instagram post telling supporters to show up to his Wednesday court date. “In a political climate where pro palestine protesters are brutally assaulted and harassed the UC Berkeley Administration chooses to side with Zionism,” the group wrote. “We must fight back!”
The group added, “Glory to the martyrs,” “Victory to the Resistance” and “Free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
Meanwhile, SOC bemoaned that UC Berkeley was preparing to shut down facilities for Monday’s event “so that TPUSA can safely spread their message of hatred and fascism,” an Instagram post shows.
“Bring your noisemakers to Lower Sproul in front of Zellerbach hall … Tell TPUSA that their message of hate and intimidation is not welcome here,” another SOC post says.
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