By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-15 03:16:09 | Updated at 2024-12-15 05:47:43
2 hours ago
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has apologized for allowing someone in the state to register a license plate mocking the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The apology comes after activist group StopAntisemitism flagged a Tesla Cybertruck seen around Los Angeles sporting a plate that read 'LOLOCT7,' which it said celebrated 'terrorism against the Jewish people.'
The plate used the letters LOL - a common abbreviation for 'laugh out loud.'
California's DMV said on social media that it would be acting to rescind the plate, which fell foul of its own rules.
'This is unacceptable and disturbing,' the agency wrote on X. 'The DMV is taking swift action to recall these shocking plates, and we will immediately strengthen our internal review process to ensure such an egregious oversight never happens again.
'We sincerely apologize that these personalized plates were not properly rejected during our review process.'
There are more than 30 million vehicles in California, the vast majority of which have regular license plates.
But for an extra fee the DMV allows drivers to personalize plates, provided the resulting message does not 'carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency,' according to its website.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has apologized for allowing someone in the state to register a license plate mocking the October 7 attacks on Israel
The plate was found on a Tesla Cybertruck seen around Los Angeles
Examples of banned plates include swear words, and racially or ethnically degrading terms.
A spokesperson for the DMV told the Los Angeles Times that the license plate should have never been able to pass the review process and the owner will be notified before it's recalled - which the driver has the right to appeal.
'StopAntisemitism was appalled to discover a vehicle with a license plate glorifying the 10/7 massacre of innocent Israelis,' Liora Rez, the executive director of the organization, told the Times.
'With the swift action of thousands of emails from our committed supporters, the California DMV has now recalled the plate,' she added.
'StopAntisemitism is appalled by the sickening display on a Cyber Truck plate in California, celebrating terrorism against the Jewish people,' the original post read.
The post - which has accumulated more than 2,000 likes - was flooded with comments from viewers expressing their anger toward the tone-deaf customization.
'Antisemitism is terrorism. Vile and disgusting. It must be rid of and those responsible held accountable,' one comment read.
Another tweet read: 'This mother f***** needs some real karma.'
The California DMV has issued an apology and has promised to rescind the plate
'Shameful and disgusting,' another user added. 'Rear end them!'
A separate tweeter remarked: 'Recall the plate and fire the idiot that approved it.'
Islamist militants abducted 251 hostages during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping roughly 250 mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
This count includes hostages who died or were killed while held in Gaza.
As of December, seven Americans are still being held as hostages inside Gaza by the terrorists, but three of those seven are believed to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,805 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
The license plate sleight is one of several anti-Semitic insults and harassment that have been aimed at the Jewish community across the country in recent months.
A woman breaks down at the memorial to Yulia Waxer Daunov as family members and friends of the lost and kidnapped gather at the site of the Nova Festival to mark the one year anniversary of the attacks by Hamas
Hundreds of Pro-Palestinian protestors took over the campus at Columbia University on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel
Hundreds of Pro-Palestinian protestors took over the campus at Columbia University and surrounded two Jewish students who were holding a vigil this past October to mark the one-year anniversary of the attack.
Raging students - some wearing keffiyehs and others masked - chanted 'Resistance is Glorious!,' 'Shut it Down,' and 'Israel Go To Hell,' as loud Arabic music drowned out the sound of Israeli music that was playing for the vigil.
Two young woman wearing an Israeli flag draped over their shoulders stood in the middle of the protest stone-faced as mobs of demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and held up signs: 'No Peace. Resist By Any Means Necessary,' and 'No Pride in Genocide. Free Palestine.'
President Joe Biden bowed his head as a rabbi chanted a Hebrew prayer during somber ceremony in the White House on the one-year anniversary - but he left the event without uttering a single word.
On the anniversary of the attack, Biden failed to name any of the US citizens that still remain captured by Hamas for more than 400 days now during the ceremony, but his administration did release a statement after the fact.
It recognized that 46 American citizens were among the 1,200 innocent people murdered by Hamas that day — and that another 12 were taken hostage.
In Israel, more than 1,200 people - 800 civilians, 346 IDF soldiers and 66 police officers - were killed when the extremist militant group Hamas infiltrated Israel in the unprovoked October 7 attack, according to the Israeli Ministry of Affairs, ABC News reported.
Approximately, 8,700 people have been injured, Israeli officials said.
President Joe Biden bowed his head as a rabbi chanted a Hebrew prayer during a somber ceremony in the White House on the one-year anniversary. He left without saying a word about US citizens who are still being held hostage in Gaza
During the unprecedented attack, 250 hostages - including women, children and the elderly, were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
A total of 112 hostages were released during a prisoner swap. The largest took place during a ceasefire on November 24, 2023, as per Israeli officials.
The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health reported this week that more than 44,700 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 100,000 people have been injured, Aljazeera reported.
The World Health Organization reported on October 25, 2024, that some 1,000 unidentified bodies are still buried under the rubble in Gaza , which are not yet included in death tolls.
