Woman defends actions after ripping down fliers of missing Israelis at Miami park

MIAMI – There has been swift backlash after a video circulating on social media over the weekend appears to show a woman tearing down posters of missing Israelis at a park in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood.

“I want her to know that if she’s trying to protest for civilians, then us — the Jewish people — are civilians, same as the civilians in Palestine,” Tomer Shaked, who recorded the video, said.

Shaked said he began recording the video after he and his friend posted fliers of missing Israelis at Margaret Pace Park from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants.

The video begins after they say the woman tore down one of the fliers while walking her dog.

As Shaket and his friend ask questions, the woman is seen defending her actions.

“Go support Hamas,” one of the men tell her.

“Of course I don’t support Hamas! That is a terrorist organization,” she says. “I’m supporting civilians!”

The woman says the two friends are misinformed.

“I’m supporting Palestinian civilians who over decades have been oppressed in apartheid because of what Israel is doing,” she says.

She later says the fliers make Palestinians look dangerous.

It was a similar situation in Brickell last week where a dentist was seen ripping down posters there.

“Unfortunately, my video of four seconds got taken way out of context, as well as the way my former employer had portrayed that, you know, as an act of supporting terrorism and it’s very, very contrary,” Dr. Ahmed Elkoussa, who was fired after the video was posted on social media, said.

With many fliers remaining at the park, Shaket says it helps raise awareness about the horrors of Hamas.

“I feel that it came out of pure hate,” he said. “I can’t understand why would anybody rip fliers of missing babies.”