The California Department of Motor Vehicles publicly apologized Dec. 12 for issuing a license plate that appears to mock the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 in Israel.
Stop Antisemitism said it was appalled by the plate, a post on its X account said Tuesday.
“Stop Antisemitism condemns in the strongest terms the issuance of a license plate glorifying the 10/7 massacre of innocent Israelis—a grotesque endorsement of violence and hatred,” Liora Rez, executive director of Stop Antisemitism, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement Friday.
“This is unacceptable and disturbing,” the DMV said in a Facebook post. “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.”
The DMV added that they were sorry the plates were not rejected during the review process.
The family member said it was not meant to be offensive, and that they would be switching out the vehicle’s plates.
In a statement to the news outlet, the DMV said, “While the plate’s owner has shared that … the configuration was intended to honor their Filipino heritage, we recognize that the same combination of letters and numbers has been interpreted by others as offensive, particularly within the Jewish community. ... To prevent similar situations in the future, the DMV is reviewing and strengthening its internal processes for evaluating personalized license plate applications.”
Objectionable content includes sexual connotations; vulgar or degrading terms; or terms of contempt, prejudice, or hostility. Also unacceptable are swear words, negative connotations aimed at a specific group, terms that misrepresent a law enforcement entity; and foreign slang.
