Protests over Trump’s Pittsburgh visit after shooting

Scores of protesters took to the streets of Pittsburgh to denounce a visit by US President Donald Trump in the wake of a mbad shooting at a synagogue that left 11 people dead.

Demonstrators gathered near the Tree of Life synagogue, where the shooting took place, holding signs that read “President Hate, Leave Our State!” and “Trump, Renounce White Nationalism Now.”

Mr Trump arrived in the city with his wife Melania to pay his respects to the victims, but some say he has not done enough to tackle hate speech, and in fact fans extremism through his vitriolic tweets.

The Republican president said he would visit hospitalised police officers and other people wounded in the attack.

Earlier, grieving families and friends gathered for the first funerals for victims of the shooting.

Nearly 2,000 mourners from across the US offered condolences to the relatives of brothers David, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59, at the Rodef Shalom synagogue in the Pennsylvania city as police officers stood outside.

The two brothers were among the 11 mostly elderly congregants shot to death on Saturday.

Funerals were also being held for Jerry Rabinowitz, a 66-year-old family physician, and Daniel Stein, 71.

“Words can’t describe it. It’s so tragic. The world we live in leaves individuals who are so deranged to take actions like this,” Bob Farrow, who knows members of the Rosenthal family, said outside the Rodef Shalom temple.

“Everyone wants to show their support of the Jewish community,” Mr Farrow, who is not Jewish, said.

Robert Bowers, 46, is accused of storming into the synagogue yelling “All Jews must die” and opening fire on members of three congregations holding Sabbath prayer services there.

Yesterday a federal judge ordered Bowers held without bail.

The attack, which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) described as the deadliest targeting Jews in the United States, has heightened a national debate over Mr Trump’s rhetoric, which critics say has contributed to a surge in white nationalist and neo-Nazi activity.

The Trump administration has rejected the notion that he has encouraged the far-right extremists who have embraced him.

Mr Trump’s visit comes just seven days before elections that will determine the balance of power in Congress.

The Republicans currently control both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The top four US congressional leaders – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi – declined to join Mr Trump in Pittsburgh, two sources familiar with the planning said.

An aide to Mr McConnell said the Kentucky Republican was unable to attend because of a conflict with events in his home state.

An aide to Mr Ryan said he was not able to travel to Pittsburgh on such short notice.

The ADL, a non-profit group dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of hate, said last week that far-right extremists had stepped up “online propaganda offensives” in the run-up to the elections to attack and to try to intimidate Jews.

“I spend half of each year in Germany. I have seen how another country with a much tougher background has dealt with this, starting at ground zero,” said Walter Jacob, a rabbi at Rodef Shalom.

Members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community said they would protest against Mr Trump. 

“The gunman who tore apart our neighborhood believed your lies about the immigrant caravan in Mexico,” protest organisers said in an announcement, referring to a group of migrants who are trekking through Mexico toward the United States.

“He believed anti-Semitic lies that Jews were funding the caravan”

In a social media post on Saturday, Bowers, the suspect, had accused the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a group that helps refugees, of bringing “invaders in that kill our people”.

The protest announcement echoed an open letter from a group of local Jewish leaders who told Mr Trump: “You are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism.”

More than 43,000 people have signed the letter, organised and posted online by the Pittsburgh chapter of Bend the Arc, a Jewish organisation opposed to what it calls “the immoral agenda of the Trump administration and the Republican Party.”

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said he was also against Mr Trump’s visit because it would coincide with the first funerals.

Mr Peduto, a Democrat, said Mr Trump should wait until all the funerals were held, adding that the visit and additional security measures entailed would distract attention from the “priority” of burying the dead.