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Thug media claim “frenzy of violence” at peaceful Hub rally
A report aired on Fox News by a self-styled freelance journalist has misled people around the world to believe that anti-Jewish mob violence took place at a peaceful Boston rally last month.
For the first time in three years, large numbers of U.S. Muslims have come out to protest U.S. and Israeli war policy in the Middle East.
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Muslims were active in antiwar demonstrations at the time of the second Palestinian Intifada and the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But following the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, hundreds of Muslim activists were rounded up. Even nonpolitical Muslims were deported.
A demonstration in solidarity with Lebanon and Palestine was called for Boston City Hall Plaza on July 21 in conjunction with Friday Muslim prayers.
Christian and Jewish prayers were also offered. Around a thousand people, mostly Arabs or Muslims, participated at one time or another during the three and a half-hour long event.
A wide variety of political views were represented in the crowd, but the speakers expressed moderate views.
For example, Dr. Essam Omeish, president of the sponsoring Muslim American Society, asked that Hizbullah and Hamas, as well as Israel, should release their prisoners. Other Muslim, Christian, and Jewish speakers made similar points. Even a Zionist leader spoke from the podium.
The only militantly anti-Israel statements were made by orthodox Rabbi Dovid Feldman, who led the crowd in chanting, “Free, free Palestine!”
Over at Fox News however, this rather sedate gathering became a rally which “turned into a frenzy of violence and harassment as the crowd quickly transformed into a Hizbollah support group.”
The July 27 Hannity & Colmes show on Fox captioned their story, “Jewish man harassed at pro-Hizbollah protest” over a jumpy video clip. The clip was filmed by one Seva Brodsky, who claimed that he had been assaulted and his life threatened.
The irony is that a Jewish man was harassed at the rally—by Seva Brodsky. Brodsky tried to provoke the man, whom he knew to be pro-Palestinian, by thrusting a camera in his face.
The story, substantially as presented on Fox, was rapidly disseminated to websites and newspapers all over the world. There were at least fifteen pages of links to it on the Google search engine.
Also shown was a small sign in support of Hizbollah, held by David Rolde, whom Brodsky pointedly identified as “a key member of the Green-Rainbow party.”
Hannity commented sternly, “I can only hope that our government identified those people holding up their pro-terrorist signs that are in the United States of America.”
Rolde, who also works on this newspaper, is pleased with his appearance on Fox TV. “Hizbollah are defending the people of Lebanon and Palestine against US-sponsored Israeli aggression. It is good for TV viewers to see that some Americans praise Hizbollah just like millions of people all over the world are doing.”
Brodsky told his TV audience that he attended the Lebanon rally almost out of curiosity, after seeing a story in the paper.
In fact Brodsky was identified by legal observers as one of a pair of “professional provocateurs” at the rally, “trained in inciting violence, with the intention of getting members of our communities in trouble with the police.”
They unsuccessfully sought to get the police to arrest people at the Boston rally.