There is a decades-old tradition of leaving messages, made of sticks or ice plant, on the 160-foot-high sand dune by the Sand City exit off Highway 1. The dune seems open-minded, equally happy to praise anarchy as to express someone’s love for Becky. An Oct. 12 incident, however, made the humble hill into a thermometer that shows how locals are affected by events on the other side of the world – where Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 240. Israel’s military response since has killed an estimated 11,000 people in Gaza.
World leaders, including within the U.S. Congress, have clashed over how to respond. So have Monterey County supervisors. And as seen in Sand City on Oct. 12, so have regular people in the community.
That day, three Monterey residents of Palestinian origins (ages 13 to 27), spelled out “Free Gaza” on the dune. Max Steiner, who was visiting from Chico with his bicycle and was biking by, found the sign inappropriate. He stopped and started a conversation that led to a full-on confrontation and left both sides shaken.
The versions of what exactly happened differ, but both sides agree that Steiner damaged the sign (it’s documented in video footage taken by the women, posted on social media and available online), and that he took the phone of 13-year-old Maryam Khalil, who was recording, and threw it on the ground.
But Steiner also says that he damaged the sign only after an exchange with the women, whose remarks he said were antisemitic (the group denies that), and that he grabbed the teenager’s phone only after the three started to kick his bicycle, damaging it. Kicking the bike is not part of the women’s story.
Steiner left the scene before Sand City police arrived, called by the women. Sand City Police Chief David Honda says the case was so complex that they passed it on to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, where it remains under review as of the Weekly’s deadline. No charges have been filed to date. The police collected the damaged phone in their investigation; it has since been returned.
In the meantime, the women started their own investigation, identifying Steiner, who ran for Congress in northeastern California as a Democrat in 2022, and posted a video on TikTok showing him damaging the letters with his feet. The video went viral, with over 1 million views, and Steiner has been receiving hate mail on social media, including messages calling for him to die.
Steiner says he would damage a swastika sign too, even though he says “Free Gaza” doesn’t mean “No Israel” or “Hamas Rules.”
Steiner, who is not Jewish, joined the Army at 19, serving two years in Iraq. He participated in a peacekeeping effort in the Middle East and then served for eight years as a U.S. diplomat.
“I do not want to see extremists erecting pro-terrorist signs in America,” Steiner writes by email. “I asked them what it meant, and it’s why I tore it down when they answered with a terrorist apology. I know that ‘Veteran Reacts Aggressively to Pro-Terror Sign on Beach, Gets Doxed’ isn’t a gripping headline, but that’s basically the summary of this incident.”
The Khalil family has a different summary of the incident. They say Steiner not only grabbed Maryam Khalil’s phone but choked her; Steiner denies even touching her.
“To take her phone, he had to touch her,” argues her father, Dodi Khalil. He has been living in Monterey County for 40 years, running an auto shop in Seaside.
“He confronted us because we looked young and we were wearing hijabs,” says Sara Khalil, age 27, who was on the hill. “Our people are being dehumanized and attacked for free speech in Monterey County. We don’t feel safe here anymore.”
Given that Scribble Hill is on private property, it is not technically a matter of free speech rights, says David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition. “The only person who has a right to take the sign down is the property owner,” he notes – same thing goes for putting up a sign. (The property owner is Ed Ghandour, who plans to build a hotel and condominium project on this spot. The project has been on hold since at least 2014.)
Whether or not either side intended simply to exercise their right to free speech, they captured the tension that has been felt in the polarizing national and international discourse on a complex, emotional topic. Monterey County saw a divided board of supervisors vote twice to not approve a resolution in support of Israel, while some Bay Area cities have more recently approved resolutions in solidarity with Gaza. College campuses across the country have seen walkouts and protests, but Monterey County has seen just a few peace marches so far; a rally in solidarity with Palestinians and call for a ceasefire, organized by a group calling itself Monterey Palestine Solidarity, is scheduled to take place in front of Monterey City Hall from 3-5:30pm on Friday, Nov. 17.
Dodi Khalil views Steiner’s confrontation as representative of a broader problem of hate. “It was also fueled by Islamophobia and prejudice against Muslims, specifically Palestinians,” he adds. “It’s disheartening to witness such hatred.”
He also spoke about the incident inside the Monterey County Board of Supervisors chambers on Tuesday, Oct. 24, when the board was considering a resolution condemning acts of terrorism by Hamas and expressing solidarity with Israel. The measure was introduced by Supervisor Luis Alejo, who said it was important to take a stand against antisemitism. County staff incorporated language acknowledging “the County of Monterey is home to a diverse population, including Jewish American and Palestinian American residents,” and brought the resolution back for consideration, where Dodi Khalil and others spoke against it, urging the board not to take a position on one side or the other. They voted 3-2 twice against adopting a resolution in solidarity with Israel.
Meanwhile, the incident at Scribble Hill remains unresolved and the question unanswered of what’s next for the Khalils and Steiner. The Khalil family demands punishment for Steiner, saying they need justice to feel safe in Monterey County.
While the facts of their confrontation remain under investigation, the conflict in Gaza continues. Since Oct. 7, a reported 11,000 people in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s military response, 4,000 of them children.
(16) comments
The DA's Office needs to appropriately file assault charges against Mr Stiener!
Hi Steve, thank you for sharing your very astute opinion. Seems like you may have not read the comment below! All the best -- Joseph
As the Max Steiner mentioned in this article, I'd like to emphasize how frustrating it was to be interviewed for this piece. The reporter wanted to make this an article about "tense feelings" when a little editorial skepticism would show one side was obviously lying. I'm not asking for a Watergate-level piece of investigative journalism, but I just want to point out that there is literally a full video of the incident, taken by the Khalil sisters, which they have refused to make public.
A typical reader would immediately call into question the credibility of a party who had a video of an incident but refused to share it in its entirety. The Khalil sisters have such a video. In fact, they used clips from it the night of the incident to make a TikTok video that has resulted in more than a month of death threats and anti-Semitic comments clogging my inbox and the inboxes of "friends" on social media.
I repeatedly emphasized this to the Monterey County Weekly. The single most important fact to this story is that the girls recorded the ENTIRE incident but have subsequently refused to share that footage with the press or, according to my most recent conversation, the police. To reiterate, they also refused to share the entire video with the author of this article.
Why, if the Khalils had a full video of the incident, would they want to hide it? Such a decision only makes sense if it showed them saying anti-Semitic slurs and trashing my bike. The former would justify my destruction of their hateful sign. The latter would expose them to legal risk for filing a false police report denying attacking my bike.
So that's my critique of this article. The writer was given a clear indication that one side is lying - and not only chose to ignore it, but also refused to acknowledge it directly in her article for readers to draw their own conclusions. I think that is a sad reflection of journalistic standards in America today.
GET EM!!! What I am wondering--how did the phone break on the sand? Lot of holes in this.
Oh well if you only saw the TikTok duh. But they shared the full 2/3 min video on live. The girls didn’t say anything antisemitic. A 13 year old got attacked you crazy? Max fleeeessss after attacking he peddled off in his tights. That’s why people are so angry. The audience identified him. Crazy that you are so cool with attacking the victims Joseph👀 Y’all suit each other.
Phone broke on the bike path btw. Since you missed that in the article. And your boy already said he did it on Twitter 😂
I do not like wasting my life away on tiktok, duh. Why would you release only 2/3 of a purportedly egregious event? Why would you not release the whole video if you valued truth? Max is a victim of mass hysteria. The girls had a run in with a different world view.
Article never said it broke on the bike path, this occurs a lot for many, where they interpose what they would like to read. Hope this helps :D
Joseph my question still stands how did he get her phone out of her Hands with out touching her? Can you justify a grown man snatching a 13 year old girls phone and throwing it? you think when he was screaming at her she handed it to him? also regarding how it broke he chucked it on the pavement not in the sand.
there are photos of the broken phone on the article from KION
You think a 13 year old child would break her own phone all as part of a scheme against a stranger? your story is not lining up.
There were three women of varying ages, the whole video is spliced. Many are interposing what the want to see. There is not enough evidence to come to a complete conclusion. All the best Sam. It really is not farfetched to believe that you can grab a phone without choking someone.
Max you are so sad man… The whole interaction was on live got millions of views 😂 everyone saw it. Nothing the girls said was antisemitic. Which is crazy to say cause they are themselves semites. And we all heard them yelling at you as you where grabbing the the 13year old. Telling you “she’s just a kid get off her”. But the fact that you still show face… embarrassing 😂😂
Hi Sanda, it is quite embarrassing to not realize that the video is obviously spliced. I think you should maybe watch NCIS to learn about evidence. All the best, Joseph
The thing is, I truly do not care about a conflict that is happening in the middle east. 60,000 people die from fentanyl a year in the US. The number is climbing.
Also in this town there have been weekly protest. This is a small town the turn out is not huge but there have been protest at college campus Csumb weekly. 2 this week even. Is the writer or this article even local?
I’m confused how he got to her phone with out touching her. It’s an awfully perplexing story. I saw his post on twitter admitting to breaking the phone. A brown man breaking a 13 year old child’s phone is not sitting right with me. That kind of violence puts him at a place where i believe the girls. It looks like he laid his hand on them. Hope justice is served.
"Brown man" lol. Further, SAM, the violence is completely undocumented. The video shows them walking down the hill. How did the phone shatter in the sand?
Sorry for my typo i ment “grown” man. And it looks like u have not looked into this case because Max posted himself that he did indeed take the phone and he chucked it. It fell on the pavement he chucked it to. Have a nice day and do some research on what the man you are protecting posted HIMSELF
Sam Sandy, I am not able to reply directly to you, but this pertains to your below comment. My point still stands, how does a phone shatter like that on sand? Further, if you are to do some research on what Max himself posted-- the women in question have the whole video, yet they have no released the whole video. We see only Max removing the sign, some weird squeal while the camera is pointed at feet, and then a girl crying in a car. Very conclusory, little facts. Sorry, you lost
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