Florida man charged after threat phoned to World Jewish Congress

A man in Florida faces federal criminal charges following his threat-laced phone call to the World Jewish Congress.

Deep Alpesh Kumar Patel, 21, is facing a count of transmitting an interstate threat to injure after he called the organization, which is a representative body of Jewish communities from over 100 countries, on Oct. 21 and began unleashing expletives. Patel would later claim he was calling out of anger at Israel’s treatment of Palestinian people in Gaza amid its war with Hamas.

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“If I had a chance, I would kill every single one of you Israelis,” Patel said, according to the criminal complaint. “Every single one of you! Cause mass genocide of every single Israeli.”

Since Patel named himself during the phone call, an FBI task force officer from the Sarasota Police Department was able to locate Patel three days later. Officers arrived at Patel’s Sarasota home to question him, where he confirmed it was his cellphone that made the call and that he was the one on the phone.

“When the officers asked Patel to describe the content of the telephone calls, he explained that he had called Jewish centers to express his family’s anger with Israel for the genocide of the Palestinian people. Patel stated that he did not intend to scare or threaten anyone, but that he wanted to use the harshest language possible to convey his anger,” the criminal complaint read.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Risha Asokan can seek a maximum of five years in federal prison if Patel is convicted.

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This comes as anti-Jewish hate crimes increased by 36% in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to FBI crime data. Meanwhile, the same data set saw a 3% increase in anti-Islamic hate crimes.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, these 3,697 antisemitic incidents in 2022 were the highest number since the ADL began keeping data in 1979.