An advertised “shutdown” event outside an Israeli defense company by Palestinian supporters turned into a Mexican standoff when Jewish and pro-Israel showed up to counterprotest on Thursday.

I’ll be upfront and say I did not expect the situation to spiral out of control in the way it did. Southern Florida is known for its large Jewish population but that is especially true for Boca Raton, but as time went on, more people showed up on the Palestine side.

This posed a problem for the Boca Raton Police Department. They had stationed themselves around the business park and numbered close to 20 from my observation. But when the Palestinian side moved to be right across the street from the Jewish protesters, that is when things got sporty. Much of the fighting I recorded is on my X account, but much more happened leading up to it.