Hoax Alert: An Israeli Flag on the Freeway (2024)
According to ‘CBS News’ there was a so-called ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ in September in Freemont, California where some of – what appears to be – road rage has been claimed to be an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’.
We read how:
‘Prosecutors in Alameda County have charged a man with a hate crime for allegedly threatening someone whose vehicle was adorned with an Israeli flag, the District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.
Jesus Hernandez, 40, was charged with one misdemeanor hate crime count, a second count of felony criminal threats and a third count of brandishing a replica firearm.
According to prosecutors, Hernandez was traveling on an East Bay freeway in Alameda County last Thursday when he allegedly veered toward another person's vehicle which was adorned with an Israeli flag. Hernandez is accused of threatening to kill the person in the vehicle, yelling racial slurs and pointing a replica firearm at the person.
Prosecutors also allege that Hernandez used the replica firearm to assault the victim after exiting the freeway in Fremont.’ (1)
With ‘Kron 4’ similarly writing how:
‘A man has been hit with several charges after he allegedly threatened a person who had an Israeli flag on their car, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said.
The incident happened on a freeway in Fremont on Sept. 12. A criminal complaint said that Jesus Hernandez, 40, saw a car with an Israeli flag and veered towards it.
He yelled slurs and death threats at the victim and pointed a replica firearm at them, Price’s office said.
He also used the replica gun to “assault” the victim after the cars exited the freeway into Fremont, the DA’s office said.’ (2)
Now the obvious thoughts we have when reading this is while the victim’s car undoubtedly had an Israeli flag on it and Hernandez likely did abuse the driver of the other car and point a replica firearm at them.
I am rather doubtful this had anything to do with the Israeli flag on the victim’s car and much more to do with actual and/or perceived bad driving from the victim with Hernandez using the information provided by the Israeli flag as information to inform his choice of bad languages – hence ‘racial slurs’ – rather than the idea that Hernandez deliberately swerved towards the victim’s car just because it had an Israeli flag on it.
I severely doubt that such behaviour would occur given Hernandez is likely of Latin American descent and isn’t likely to have so significant an issue with Israel’s conduct in Gaza against the Palestinians to made so angry by the presence of an Israeli flag on someone’s car on a highway.
Further the claim by the victim that Hernandez swerved towards the victim’s car ‘because of the Israeli flag’ appears to derive entirely from the victim’s testimony and isn’t verified by any supporting evidence, while the victim also leaves out any mention of any precursor events or dashcam footage which would validate their implied claim that it happened ‘for no reason’ and thus could be claimed to be ‘anti-Semitic’.
Thus, the likelihood here is not that this was an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ but rather a road rage incident – which may or may not have been provoked/caused by the ‘victim’ – that caused Hernandez to scream ‘racial slurs’ based on his assumption from the Israeli flag displayed on the ‘victim’s’ vehicle that the ‘victim’ was jewish.
It is probably that simple and not an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’.
References
(1) https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/alameda-county-hate-crime-charge-driver-israeli-flag-threatened-on-freeway/
(2) https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/man-charged-for-alleged-anti-israel-hate-crime-in-fremont/ also see https://jweekly.com/2024/09/19/two-alleged-hate-incidents-linked-to-displays-of-israeli-flags-in-east-bay-and-s-f/