In one of the most high-profile protests in Los Angeles by activists opposed to Israel’s war on Gaza, the southbound lanes of the 110 Freeway were closed as it passes through downtown.
In December 2023, news helicopters captured chaotic scenes as protesters sat on the highway, disrupting traffic south of the four-story overpass. On live television, angry motorists and demonstrators clashed physically.
Los Angeles City Attorney. Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office later charged many of the protesters with unlawful assembly, failure to disperse, failure to comply with a lawful order and blocking a street, sidewalk or other public corridor — all misdemeanors.
On Monday, after a lengthy legal battle, a judge agreed to place 29 protesters into a 12-month diversion program that requires each to perform 20 hours of community service.
The protesters’ attorney, Colleen Flynn, said the charges would be dismissed in October 2026 if they complete their services and comply with the law.
In court on Monday, Flynn praised her client for taking a stand out of a moral obligation to “draw attention to the ongoing loss of life and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
“These were people who, in good conscience, decided to commit an act of civil disobedience,” she told the judge.
Two other people charged in connection with the protests received judicial diversion earlier this year and have completed community service. Flynn said the charges against them had been dismissed.
Flynn initially asked each of the 29 protesters to perform eight hours of community service. The city prosecutor successfully stalled for 20 hours, saying the political reasons for the protest had nothing to do with the case. Deputy City Attorney. Brad Rotenberg told the judge the highway closure lasted about four hours.
“This affects thousands of people who come to work in America’s second-largest city,” he said.
The hearing was a quiet end to a bitter legal battle.
Flynn spent months pushing to dismiss the case, arguing that Feldstein-Soto’s decision to charge protesters was rooted in “impermissible prejudice” – religious or racial prejudice against Palestinians and their supporters.
At multiple hearings, Flynn said her clients were treated differently than other protesters, who also disrupted traffic but highlighted different political issues, such as higher wages for hotel workers. Flynn also pointed to a social media post by Feldstein Soto on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas-led militants invaded Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 others.
“Every country and every moral person must support Israel in defense of her people,” Feldstein Soto wrote on her @ElectHydee page.
Last month, a judge denied Flynn’s request to dismiss the case. At that hearing, prosecutors said the protesters were charged because they posed a special threat to public safety by closing a highway.
Prosecutors argued that a motorcycle traveling at high speed between lanes could easily have hit highway protesters sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk.
Prosecutors also defended Feldstein Soto’s social media posts, saying they were written on the day of the invasion and before Israel launched a counterattack. At the time, prosecutors said, Feldstein Soto was angry about the horrific day of violence.
Since then, Israeli operations in Gaza have killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
