White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to condemn pro-Palestine activists who have been tearing down posters of Israeli hostages hanging in cities across the country.
Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, pro-Palestine activists have torn down posters, once hung by Jewish Americans, with pictures and information on hostages and kidnapped Israelis. Some activists have called the posters “disgusting” and “bait.” NBC Chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander asked Jean-Pierre if the White House’s view is that such actions should be condemned or if the administration considered it a form of peaceful protest. (RELATED: White House Announces Anti-Islamophobia Strategy Amid Large Spike In Antisemitism)
“Look, I — I’ve sorta, kinda seen the reporting here and there. I think it was from last week,” Jean-Pierre responded before Alexander added there were “30 million videos” that have gone around of such incidents.
“I’m just not going to go into specifics on that particular thing. What I can say is there are real, violent protests and threats that are happening right now, and senior administration officials are aware of these reports which are deeply concerning. That is something we are focused on,” Jean-Pierre said during the Tuesday press briefing.
One pro-Palestine activist decided to tear down such posters featuring Israeli hostages in New York after a friend told her they were anti-Islamic propaganda, according to The New York Times. Another activist remarked Jewish Americans were putting up the posters to “bait people to take them down,” the Times reported.
🚨 #BREAKING: Shocking video captures two people in front of #USC tearing down and discarding posters of hostages kidnapped by Hamas. This is not helping Palestine its only a front for Antisemitism 🇮🇱#StopAntisemitism #StopTheHateNow #Isreal #Hamas #IsrealPalestineWar pic.twitter.com/KppB5axRzm
— HardBoiledEgg🥚 (@HarderBoiledEgg) October 27, 2023
“To be clear, it’s deeply concerning that people would be pulling these things down?” Alexander followed up.
“As it relates to a lot of reporting out there about violent protests and threats and so I can speak to that. I can speak to how the FBI is tracking an increased volume. I can speak to the frequency of threats that we are seeing to the Jewish community, to the Arab American community, to the Muslim communities in the United States since Oct. 7.”
“That is something I can speak to, and obviously DOJ and FBI are working with local law enforcement on those threats and of course that is deeply concerning to us and so that is what we are going to work on, focusing on that,” the press secretary concluded.