Jewish man punched and kicked in Washington DC, accused of murdering people in Gaza

A visibly Jewish man was assaulted in an antisemitic incident in Northwest Washington DC on Wednesday, according to US media reports.

The victim, Ariel Golfeyz, 31, looked visibly Jewish, wearing a kippah, when he was attacked by the perpetrator, Walter James 39, who punched Golfeyz repeatedly and injured his jaw, according to the Washington Post.

“I felt very vulnerable,” Golfeyz said Friday. “I don’t feel safe anymore walking around with my Jewish, religious objects in DC.”

ADL regional director Meredith Weisel responded to the attack calling it an “hateful antisemitic assault” which unfortunately confirmed ADL’s data regarding the escalation of anti-Jewish hatred in America. 

Details of the incident

On Wednesday, at 8:30 in the morning, Golfeyz was returning home from his work as a cyber security manager. Golfeyz told the Post he saw a fist out of the corner of his eye and then heard the sound of his own jaw cracking.

He then fell into a patch of weeds and tried to fight his attacker while being repeatedly punched in the face before a police officer at the nearby hospital intervened. 

“After punching me, he jumps on me and starts kicking and punching me, and at that point, it was just fight or flight,” Golfeyz said in an interview with The Algemeiner.

“I just couldn’t get him off of me because he continued kicking and punching,” Golfeyz continued. “I was in mortal physical danger.” He estimated the attack lasted about two minutes.

Talking to The Algemeiner, Golfeyz described his attacker as a medium-height black male of slight build with a beard and said that before the incident, he had been walking behind him for a while.

Golfeyz recounted to The Algemeiner that he ultimately turned to bite James’s neck as a last resort, which enabled him to break free.

Walter James had previously been charged with resisting arrest and assault of a police officer in separate incidents.

The Texas resident is now up against charges of assault with significant bodily injury.

Golfeyz suffered facial contusions, according to The Post, alongside major swelling and severe jaw pain which stops him from chewing. 

Antisemitic tropes

“I felt very vulnerable,” Golfeyz said Friday. “I don’t feel safe anymore walking around with my Jewish, religious objects in DC.”

According to a police affidavit, Golfeyz later relayed to the police that James had said, while punching him, “You are not the real Jewish, and you guys are murderers; you guys kill people in Gaza and in America.”

Even after he had been physically reprimanded by the on-site police officer, James continued his antisemitic tirade, said the Post, citing Golfeyz, including accusing the victim of “controlling land, money and government” and blaming him for “murdering” men, women and children in Gaza.

In footage shared with The Algemeiner, James also mentioned being one of the “true children of Israel”, potentially referencing the Black Hebrew Israelite ideology, which suggests that Black people descend from the true Israelites, and Jews are not the real descendants.

In a similar incident on Saturday, an orthodox Jewish man in New York was followed by a man saying, “Black people is the real Jews,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

Walter James verbally attacks Jewish man in DC (The Algemeiner via Ariel Golfeyz)

“It’s turned very quickly into a very hateful time. I’ve never seen it in my life,” said Golfeyz. “I feel like it’s just getting to a point where it’s not about Israel, it’s about the Jewish people as well.”

Golfeyz was born to Iranian Jewish parents in the US and grew up Orthodox. As an adult, he still adheres to an Orthodox lifestyle and wears a kippah. He is a frequent member of the local Sephardic minyan.

After the incident, Golfeyz said he messaged his minyan group chat and told them to no longer wear their kippot outside in public, for fear of them suffering similar attacks.

“I don’t think I will be, you know, wearing my religious objects anymore in Washington, DC,” stated Golfeyz in an interview with Fox 5.