An anti-Israel TikToker was charged last week with bias, intimidation and harassment for tearing down a string of Greek flags at a Greek restaurant in Montclair, New Jersey, believing they were Israeli flags, the Montclair Police Department said in a statement.
“What’re you looking at? You know damn well there is a genocide,” Amber Matthews, 23, who goes by “ambamelia” on TikTok, was heard saying on a video she uploaded to her TikTok account on Oct. 15.
“Free Palestine,” she yelled at the restaurant’s workers. After one of the employees approached her to explain that the flags were Greek, Matthews replied: “Oh I thought it was Israel, my bad.”
The incident took place on Mar. 11 at a restaurant named Efi’s Gyro. The restaurant’s owner, Efi Mihalis, filed a complaint, but police officers could not identify the woman.
Having combed through security footage, police found out that she paid a visit to the restaurant a week earlier, handing out flyers in support of Palestine, but had no other leads.
On Oct. 15, Matthews posted a video of the incident from her point of view, with a text that read: “The time I mistakenly thought the flag for Greek was for Israel and took the restaurants flag down OMG.”
The footage went viral, generating more than 4.5 million views and 17,800 comments.
Montclair Police then found the suspect and arrested her.
“Montclair is a community that strives to treat all individuals with dignity and respect,” Police Chief Todd Conforti said, according to the New York Post.
“I hope this investigation sends a clear message that our agency will not tolerate any form of Harassment or Discrimination, and offenders will be held accountable for their actions,” he went on to say.
Natalie Lee, owner of Mikki & Al’s Noshery, a Kosher deli in Montclair, told the Post: “She did make herself look like one of the dumbest people on earth. How do you not know the difference?
“If you’re going to make that kind of statement, at least know your flag. I cannot imagine that someone is that uneducated that they don’t know the difference. What she did … you made people believing in their cause look like idiots. It clearly was done for likes, that’s it,” Lee added, as cited by the Post.
Matthews is due to appear in court in Newark on Dec. 3, police said.