ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Antisemitic flyers were discovered in an Orange County community as the deadly attack by Hamas militants on Israel continues overseas.
Residents in the city of Orange discovered the antisemitic flyers dispersed across their neighborhood and vehicles on Tuesday morning.
Some of the flyers could still be seen on cars parked near Harwood Street and Chapman Avenue.
“It’s very disturbing,” said Kari Ratkevich, an Orange resident. “Someone is placing propaganda like this on our cars. It doesn’t belong here and it doesn’t belong in America.”
The flyer features a headline saying, “Jews wage war on American freedoms!” while taking aim at the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-hate organization fighting antisemitism.
The flyer then encourages the public to join a local nationalist group.
“It’s clearly hate speech,” said Peter Levi, Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League in O.C. and Long Beach. “It subscribes to numerous antisemitic tropes about the Jewish people’s power and control over media, finance, government, the criminal justice system, American policy.”
Levi believes it’s not a coincidence the flyers appeared on residents’ vehicles just days after the terrorist attacks in Israel.
“When we see increased activity in Israel, we see increased antisemitism against the Jewish people here in the United States,” Levi explained.
Although the flyers are not technically illegal, the Orange Police Department still recommends reporting such incidents to authorities so they can be aware of the situation.
The Anti-Defamation League also recommends reporting such activity so they can keep track of any possible issues.