Rachel Fink

In the hours before the Flag March takes place, the normally bustling Muslim Quarter becomes a virtual ghost town as residents close their businesses and lock themselves inside their homes. Palestinians are all but invisible on Jerusalem Day, save for a few last minute stragglers who walk quickly through the cobblestone streets, at great personal risk to themselves. Last year, two days after a particularly heinous march, my colleague @ztnagham and I went back to the to the Old City to speak to those who, year after year, are forced to spend Jerusalem Day in the shadows. Old men in crisp thawbs and sleek aviators. Women who smiled through tears and patted our cheeks as they talked. We heard stories of rage and resignation and resilience. There were many, many non-optional invitations for coffee. It is still one of my most favorite assignments. The physical violence and overt racism of Jerusalem Day will always grab the headlines. But it is worth remembering, behind those locked doors and shuttered gates are actually people, whose voices deserve to be heard.

Okay , I am in the story , let us go to court even in Israel . You will find hundreds of cases . I am ready to testify and bring many many victims with me .

@whore_johnny “Shiach l’yehudi.l” - This belongs to a Jew.

@RachelSFink Where did he write “this belongs to jew” I cant see

A Jewish man prepares his ATM machine ahead of the thousands of Flag Day participants who will march through the Muslim Quarter, wrapping it in cardboard and writing the words, “This belongs to a Jew. Do not damage. Thanks.”

@TatumDRezvani Yes and yes.

@RachelSFink Hi Rachel. This is Tatum with the European Broadcasting Union. Did you film this video? If so, may we have permission to share it as per news-exchange.ebu.ch/clearance with courtesy to you as part of our coverage of this story? Thank you so much.

Participants in the Flag March in celebration of Jerusalem Day are walking through the Muslim Quarter singing “May your village burn.” Earlier they chanted “Death to Arabs” and “All left-wingers are whores.”

A young child interrupts a reporter during his broadcast from the Flag March in Jerusalem’s Old City. “This is our country,” he says. “Do you get that this is our country. Get out of here.”

Police and Border Patrol forcibly removed all journalists and protective presence activists from the Flag March. The press is not being allowed to cover the state-sponsored event taking place. Reporter: In what kind of country are you allowed to hit journalists?

So far, the only people being forced to leave the area are journalists and the activists providing protective presence

In an unprescendented move, police and the army are telling all journalists they need to leave.

Ahead of what is typically when the more violent and racist moments of the Jerusalem Day flag march take place, members of the Tag Meir organization are walking through the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City, offering flowers and words of solidarity to the few remaining Palestinians making their way either home or out of the area. They are greeted with smiles and words of thanks. @TagMeir

Does anyone know if the producers at Channel 12 have access to the internet? Who thought it was a good idea to run this today? It’s a promo for a story about the K-9 unit of the army: “With stories only the dogs can tell.” The last shot is the evening anchor being attacked by the dog and joking, “Can’t we do this nicely?” It’s meant to be a story about their heroic work in Gaza. I would say the optics and the timing are.. not great.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that today, after these two “bombshell” reports were published, and the hundreds of thousands of responses containing “iron-clad proof” either refuting or corroborating each piece, there is the same amount of people who believe Israeli prison staff committed sexual atrocities against Palestinians and the same amount of people who believe Hamas committed sexual atrocities on October 7 as there was yesterday. There’s no longer such a thing as exposing the truth, informing the public, debate, questioning, making a convincing argument, moving the needle. The one thing we have left is confirmation bias. And your success and credibility hinges on whether you can gather enough people who already believe what you want to tell them.

Every single person who was killed by a weapon of war in the last month died a needless death. Now is the time to do some serious soul-searching. Did you cheer these deaths on, yes or no?

One more time. Please show me the tweet Hen has written where he calls out Trump for threatening to wipe out an entire civilization. If you are an advocate for the Iranian people and you literally send 50 tweets a day there is absolutely no way you remain completely silent when someone threatens to wipe them out unless your only real motivation for advocating for the Iranian people is if and when it serves your agenda. Here’s the tweet he would write if we weren’t living in a social media hellscape: “As you guys know I have been one of the biggest advocates for the Iranian people and freeing them from this evil regime but also Trump threatening to kill them all is horrific and not at all what we want. We cannot have our “joint Israeli Persian Shabbat dinner” we were all talking about a month ago if all the Persian invitees are dead.” And I think this all very much makes sense to you even if that pisses you off.

@RachelSFink @HenMazzig None of this makes any sense. Most people can multitask, but you

“You’re a Jew.” During a stand-up show in New York 🇺🇸, Jewish comedian Judy Gold was interrupted by someone shouting that at her. This is where we are. Because for some people, “You’re a Jew” is used as an insult. And the fact that someone feels comfortable saying it out loud tells you how normalized antisemitism has become.

Yes. Exactly like this. Hen uses everyone’s pain to serve his agenda. If you care about the Iranian people you call out the execution of 17 year old kids AND you point out that Trump threatening to kill them all defeats the purpose. However, if you make your living producing propaganda than you only call out the execution and you simply pretend the other stuff doesn’t exist. In the same way, he couldn’t run to X fast enough to exploit the hostages’ trauma but never one single time used his platform to boost their voices when they spoke out about the government or had to ask for donations. And listen I know everyone has to put food on the table but it’s a pretty gross was to make a living, no? But yes glad you finally got what I was saying!

@RachelSFink @HenMazzig Used to? This post is from an hour ago.

Actually that’s not accurate at all. He used to talk about the Iranian people. No, not talk, SHRIEK. He was their biggest advocate. For about two weeks. Then, when it became clear that he could no longer use them to accuse people of Jew hatred, he actually stopped talking about them. And now when he talks about the regime it’s *always* in respect to the missiles they are sending to Israel (the one and only true and eternal victims) so yeah I have a huge problem that instead of calling out Trump’s despicable promise to “wipe out a civilization” Hen is combing the internet for random acts of antisemitism. Because it’s all fake. Everything is used in service of his propaganda. (By the way he did it with the hostages too, if you were paying attention.)

@RachelSFink @HenMazzig He talks about iran every day. For some reason you decided he shouldn’t also call out jew hatred. Quite curious.

For sure! I think most normal people can. Just can you drop Hen’s messaging about Trump’s call to genocide the Iranian people here? I know freeing them is a really really important cause to him so I assume he also has plenty to say about Trump’s rhetoric. I couldn’t find anything but please put it here if I missed it!

@RachelSFink @HenMazzig Hey rachel, some of us can walk and chew gum at the same time.