The California Department of Motor Vehicles has apologized for allowing someone in the state to register a license plate that mocked the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The apology comes after activist group StopAntisemitism flagged a Tesla Cybertruck seen in Los Angeles with a sign reading “LOLOCT7,” which it said celebrated “terrorism against the Jewish people.”
The sign bore the letters LOL – a common abbreviation for ‘laugh out loud’.
California’s DMV said on social media it would take action to revoke the plate, which violated its own rules.
“This is unacceptable and disturbing,” the agency wrote on .
“We sincerely apologize that these personalized signs 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 additional fee, the DMV allows drivers to personalize license plates, provided the resulting message does not carry “connotations offensive to good taste and decency,” according to the website.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has apologized for allowing someone in the state to register a license plate that mocked the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The license plate was found on a Tesla Cybertruck seen in Los Angeles
Examples of prohibited signs include swear words and racially or ethnically derogatory terms.
That’s according to a spokesperson for the DMV Los Angeles Times that the license plate should never have passed the review process and that the owner will be notified before it is recalled – which the driver has the right to appeal.
“StopAntisemitism was shocked when it discovered a vehicle with a license plate glorifying the massacre of innocent Israelis on 10/7,” Liora Rez, the organization’s executive director, told the Times.
“Thanks to the quick action of thousands of emails from our dedicated supporters, the California DMV has now recalled the sign,” she added.
“StopAntisemitism is shocked by the sickening display on a California Cyber Truck sign celebrating terrorism against the Jewish people,” the original message read.
The post – which has racked up more than 2,000 likes – was flooded with comments from viewers expressed their anger towards tone-deaf customization.
‘Anti-Semitism is terrorism. Disgusting and disgusting. It must be stopped and those responsible must be held accountable,” read one comment.
Another tweet read: ‘This mother really needs karma.’
The California DMV has apologized and promised to withdraw the record
“Embarrassing and disgusting,” another user added. ‘Back!’
A separate tweeter commented: “Recall the record and fire the idiot who approved it.”
Islamic militants kidnapped 251 hostages during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
This count includes hostages who died or were killed while held in Gaza.
In December, seven Americans are still being held hostage in 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, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.
The license plate trick is one of many anti-Semitic insults and harassment directed at the Jewish community across the country in recent months.
A woman collapses at the memorial to Yulia Waxer Daunov as relatives and friends of the lost and abducted gather at the site of the Nova Festival marking the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters took over the campus of Columbia University on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters took over the Columbia University campus and surrounded two Jewish students who held a vigil last October to mark the one-year anniversary of the attack.
Furious 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 playing for the vigil.
Two young women, with an Israeli flag draped over their shoulders, stood stone-faced in the middle of the protest as mobs of demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and held up signs: “No peace. Resist by all means possible” and “No pride in genocide. Free Palestine.’
President Joe Biden bowed his head as a rabbi sang a Hebrew prayer during a somber White House ceremony marking the one-year anniversary — but he left the event without saying a single word.
On the anniversary of the attack, Biden failed to name the American citizens who remain captured by Hamas during the ceremony for more than 400 days, but his administration released a statement afterward.
It acknowledged that 46 American citizens were among the 1,200 innocent people killed 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 October 7 unprovoked attack, according to the Israeli Ministry of Affairs. ABC News reports this.
About 8,700 people were injured, Israeli officials said.
President Joe Biden bowed his head as a rabbi sang a Hebrew prayer during a somber White House ceremony marking the one-year anniversary. He left without saying a word about American citizens still being held hostage in Gaza
During the unprecedented attack, 250 hostages – including women, children and the elderly – were abducted and taken to Gaza.
A total of 112 hostages were released during a prisoner exchange. The largest took place during a ceasefire on November 24, 2023, Israeli officials said.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza reported this week that more than 44,700 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 100,000 injured. Aljazeera reports this.
The World Health Organization reported on October 25, 2024 that there are still approximately 1,000 unidentified bodies buried under rubble in Gaza, not yet included in the death toll.