Doctor Among 3 Accused Of Keying 16 Pro-Palestine Protesters' Cars
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An Arizona doctor and his wife, a onetime Republican activist, were among three arrested on Friday for allegedly scratching derogatory phrases onto 16 cars that belonged to demonstrators who attended a pro-Palestine protest in January.
Matthew Karlovsky and his wife, Lisa Karlovsky, were charged with criminal damage for keying the cars, alongside Bryan Long, according to a press release by the Phoenix Police Department.
The incident took place on Jan. 28 at a pro-Palestinian protest held near a synagogue, where a fundraising event for the Anti-Defamation League — hosted by its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt — was taking place.
Court filings cited by AZ Family alleged that surveillance footage showed Matthew Karlovsky acting as “a lookout” and as he, his wife and Long drove to the protest, where the trio had “intent to damage” protesters’ vehicles, according to the outlet.
According to a joint statement made by protest organizers and local Jewish and Palestinian community members, the demonstrators had gathered in front of the synagogue to “raise awareness of Greenblatt’s visit to Phoenix and to discredit his genocidal message.”
Sophie Levitt, a co-founder of Bafrayung Itst (Liberation Now), a Phoenix-based Jewish organization, told AZ Family the protest itself was peaceful, but tensions rose after those who attended the ADL’s event started walking out of the synagogue.
“They began yelling and disrupting and making obscene gestures, saying inappropriate things,” Levitt said.
Organizers said in their joint statement that there was heavy police presence during and after the protest and officers were seen “high-fiving, taking photos with, and fist bumping attendees of the Greenblatt event.”
In an email to HuffPost on Saturday, Jamil Naser, an organizer with the Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance, shared a statement alleging that “police did nothing to prevent the vandalism from happening despite it occurring on the event premises.”
As this went on, court filings cited by AZ Family allege, CQ that surveillance footage showed Matthew Karlovsky acting as “a lookout” and as he, his wife and Long drove to the protest, where the trio had “intent to damage” protesters’ vehicles, according to the outlet.
Long allegedly confessed to using a screwdriver to damage a Subaru and said hewitnessed Lisa Karlovsky damage approximately ten cars, according to the records obtainedby AZ Family.He also said she was “out of control,” claiming she was “spitting towards the Palestinian supporters even as they were walking back.”
The ADL said in a statement to AZ Family that it had no involvement in the vandalism and that “any suggestion to the contrary is both wrong and defamatory.”
The protest organizers said in their statement that when demonstrators returned to their vehicles, they found “defamatory hate speech” scratched onto their vehicle, including phrases such as “murderer,” “baby killer” and “rapist.”
“Rather than confront our protest directly, the perpetrators engraved anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic phrases into several protesters’ cars,” Naser stated in the email. “This was a hate crime, plain and simple.”
Some cars were also etched with the Stars of David.
“What really stuck out to me, as a Jewish individual, was the usage of the Star of David — a religious symbol for us Jews being used as a hate symbol,” Levitt told AZ Family.
Lisa Karlovsky served as chapter chair of the Arizona Republican Jewish Coalition, according to a 2015 press release on their website. Her husband is a doctor, a neighbor told AZ Family.
According to a flyer issued by police, the vandalism caused about $100,000 in damages.
