TikToker apologizes after tearing down Greek flags she mistook for Israeli flags: 'My bad'
'There’s genocide, and I don’t stand for Zionism,' the TikToker told workers at a Greek restaurant
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An anti-Israel TikToker vandalized a display of flags at a Greek restaurant in New Jersey, declaring ‘Free Palestine, b----!’ until workers let her know they were Greek flags, not Israeli flags.
A TikTok user named Ambamelia shared a video of the incident where she said she "mistakenly thought the flag for Greek [sic] was for Israel and took the restaurant’s flag down OMG." While the Greek flag and the Israeli flag both are blue and white, the former features 5 stripes and a cross, while the latter features two bordering stripes and a star of David.
"What are you looking at? You know damn well there’s a genocide!" she told a worker at Efi’s Gyro as she tore down its flags and market lights. She later added, "There’s genocide, and I don’t stand for Zionism" and asked the workers if they were "proud of your heritage."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This is Greek!" a worker said.
"Really?" the TikToker said. "Oh, I thought it was Israel… my bad."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Restaurant owner Efi Mihalis, who started the establishment which prides itself as "the friendliest Greek gyro spot in town" when she was 18, confirmed to The New York Post that the vandalism happened, and that she had reported the incident to the police.
"It was not a skit as some people believe," she told The Post, amid speculation the incident was too farcical to be real. "This was not planned nor was it calculated in any way." She later added that her employees were "taken aback" and that the "young woman destroyed my property."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, in October 2023, seated next to an Israeli flag. (Reuters/Pool)