Jewish leaders and groups slammed the plea deal that allowed the murderer of a Jewish man to get one year in prison followed by probation.

On Nov. 5, 2025, Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji and Paul Kessler attended opposing protests. Alnaji, on the anti-Israel side, struck Kessler in the head with a megaphone, causing the 69-year-old to fall to the pavement. Kessler died from his injuries.

The attack occurred in Thousand Oaks, near Los Angeles.

Alnaji changed his not guilty plea to guilty Tuesday on all charges, which included felony involuntary manslaughter and felony battery causing serious bodily injury.

StopAntisemitism expressed disbelief on X over Alnaji’s light sentence.

“Despite Alnaji posting pro-Hamas propaganda on his social media, Judge Derek Malan determined ‘two old guys had a dispute and an accident happened,'” the group posted incredulously. “Defense attorney Ron Bamieh stated, ‘Mr. Alnaji is a peaceful man, and he has always been a peaceful man.'”

“Most peaceful men do not promote Hamas on their social media pages, like Loay Alnaji did,” the group added. “We have no words for this judicial lunacy coming out of California.”

“This is unacceptable,” Israel War Room posted. “Paul Kessler was a 69-year-old Jewish American and a beloved father, husband, brother, and friend. His life mattered.”

“Remember this. Hamas supporter Loay Alnaji took Paul Kessler’s life in broad daylight in a nice Los Angeles neighborhood,” Jews Fight Back wrote. “He smashed him in the head with a megaphone. The system rewarded this savage brutality with ONE YEAR. MAXIMUM. Think about that. Do you see the evil tolerated so openly?
Right in our beautiful country. Never normalize it.
Never sanitize it. NEVER FORGET PAUL KESSLER.”

Joshua Burt, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, slammed the plea deal as “woefully inadequate.”

It “emboldens others to act in anger against the Jewish community,” he told a Jewish media outlet.

For Jews, the light sentence reinforces a growing realization that antisemitic violence is becoming normalized, acceptable and increasingly harder to fight.