An anti-Israel TikToker who filmed herself in a viral video ripping down flags outside a New Jersey Greek restaurant in the mistaken belief that they were Israeli flags was charged with bias and intimidation.
On March 11, Amber Matthews, 23, who names herself “Ambamelia” on TikTok, ripped down the flags at Efi’s Gyro in Montclair, New Jersey. She posted the video of the incident on October 15. The restaurant’s owner, Efi Mihalis reported the incident in March which led to an investigation.
“Authorities reviewed security footage and found the suspect was in the establishment a week prior handing out fliers in support of Palestine, but had no leads until Matthews posted her now-viral video of the encounter last week,” The New York Post reported.
In the video, Matthews snaps, “Look at that s***. … Free Palestine, b***h … I don’t stand for this. I don’t stand for genocide. I don’t stand for genocide. I don’t support it. There’s a genocide, you know that, right? They are killing children, You’re proud of your heritage? Y’all understand there’s a genocide, right? There’s nothing against people who are Jewish, but this is not okay.”
Mihalis came outside to inform her that it was a Greek restaurant.
“Oh, I thought it was Israel. My bad. Really?” Matthews responded. “Oh, s***.”
NEW: Pro-Palestine Astronaut tears down Greek flags outside a New Jersey restaurant thinking they were Israeli
“The time I mistakenly thought the flag for Greek was for Israel and took the restaurant’s flag down OMG”
“Look at that s–t,” she says in the footage…. “Free… pic.twitter.com/IPleXkEWH0
— Unlimited L’s (@unlimited_ls) October 16, 2024
The scurrilous claim of Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza flies in the face of several salient facts: Hamas hides their terrorists among civilians, and Israel has complete air superiority over Gaza. If Israel wished, it could be completely indiscriminate about saving members of the population, a notion that is inconceivable considering Israel’s efforts to evacuate areas before bombing and its attempts to bring aid to the population, which is routinely stolen by Hamas.
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As Retired Rear U.S. Adm. Steven B. Kantrowitz and Retired U.S. Vice Adm. Herman A. Shelanski noted last January:
When Israel targets an apartment building in which a Hamas commander is present or under which Hamas has hidden its rockets, even if civilian casualties ensue, it has likely acted legally. Civilian infrastructure, when used to hide terrorists or their weapons, is a legitimate military target. Israel intensely scrutinizes its targets to evaluate the possibility of civilian casualties and uses active notifications — making phone calls or dropping leaflets — to encourage civilians to flee targeted areas. If too many civilians nevertheless remain, Israel has called off strikes. But, when it judges that the risk to civilians does not outweigh the benefit of the strike, Israel attacks lawfully.
Additionally, as John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, pointed out in March in Newsweek:
In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the U.S. military, I’ve never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy’s civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings. In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. …
Israel has made over 70,000 direct phones calls, sent over 13 million text messages and left over 15 million pre-recorded voicemails to notify civilians that they should leave combat areas, where they should go, and what route they should take. They deployed drones with speakers and dropped giant speakers by parachute that began broadcasting for civilians to leave combat areas once they hit the ground. They announced and conducted daily pauses of all operations to allow any civilians left in combat areas to evacuate. …
The current Hamas-supplied estimate of over 31,000 does not acknowledge a single combatant death (nor any deaths due to the misfiring of its own rockets or other friendly fire). The IDF estimates it has killed about 13,000 Hamas operatives, a number I believe credible partly because I believe the armed forces of a democratic American ally over a terrorist regime, but also because of the size of Hamas fighters assigned to areas that were cleared and having observed the weapons used, the state of Hamas’ tunnels and other aspects of the combat. That would mean some 18,000 civilians have died in Gaza, a ratio of roughly 1 combatant to 1.5 civilians. Given Hamas’ likely inflation of the death count, the real figure could be closer to 1 to 1. Either way, the number would be historically low for modern urban warfare.
