Video: Pro-Palestine protester tries to burn Israeli flag, but pro-Israel protester runs up and pulls flag away — then all hell breaks loose
Cellphone video caught the moment when a pro-Palestine protester tried to burn an Israeli flag while standing in the bed of a pickup truck Thursday during a demonstration near the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans.
But when a pro-Israel protester ran up and pulled the flag away, all hell broke loose.
What are the details?
Video shows two males standing on the bed of the truck as it slowly motors through the throng. One is wearing a mask and flying a Palestinian flag on a pole while the other attempts to set fire to an Israeli flag, WVUE-TV reported.
But another male who's holding an Israeli flag of his own is seen running up to the truck and pulling the flag away from the male trying to burn it. With that, the masked protester holding the Palestinian flag apparently tries to hit the pro-Israel protester with the flagpole. An audible thud is heard, and numerous fights break out on the street.
Here's the clip. Content warning: Language:
— (@)
According to Fox News, the pro-Israel protestor who tried to prevent the Israeli flag from being set on fire was assaulted and was taken away in an ambulance. WVUE reported that Tulane said “a couple” of its students were assaulted and sustained minor injuries.
New Orleans police shut down a portion of Freret Street after the fight, WVUE noted.
Tulane said two people — both non-students — were arrested after the incident, WSDU-TV reported.
Freshman Gabriel Rudelman told the Tulane Hullabaloo — a student newspaper — that he's "never seen antisemitism like that. I’ve heard of it, and I’ve seen it on the news, but seeing it in person is scary. It’s scary to be a Jew right now, even on a very Jewish campus.”
Pro-Palestine rally near Tulane’s campus turns violent after Israel flag is almost set on fire youtu.be
Anything else?
Tulane campus police arrested a male student early Thursday who was accused of spray-painting a pro-Palestine message on a wall on Freret Street, the Hullabaloo said in separate story, citing a police report.
Police said the spray-painted message read, “From the river to the sea," the paper reported. The phrase is part of a longer slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," which is popular among pro-Palestine protesters — but is often viewed as a call to wipe Israel off the map. The Anti-Defamation League characterizes the slogan as a rallying cry for "a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, territory that includes the State of Israel, implying the dismantling of the Jewish state."
The student, who is not named in the report, told police the message was not intended to be anti-Semitic, the paper noted.
But the Hullaballoo reported that Tulane President Mike Fitts characterized the act as “antisemitic vandalism.” Police charged the student with criminal damage to property and initially listed the case as “bias motivation" and took him to Orleans Parish Central Lockup, the paper added.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!