Oviedo, Fla. – A Central Florida woman and her daughter were
shocked to find that a flag hung outside her Oviedo home had been defaced.
“This was brazen. It was right out there in the open,” said
Randy. She and her 15-year-old daughter,
Madison, hung the flag together on Wednesday from a large tree in their front
yard after learning about “Flags 4 Israel,” which encourages people to display
the Israeli flag and then post an image of it on social media, using the
hashtag #Flags4Israel.
“There’s a Facebook group
that was started by a rabbi down in the Miami area called ‘Flags 4 Israel.’ He
was encouraging everyone to fly Israel flags for October 22, to show our
solidarity for our Israeli brothers and sisters. All the attacks they’ve been
undergoing in the last few week, they’ve just exponentially escalated,”
said Randy.
Both mom and daughter view this as a hate crime. “This is antisemitic behavior,”
said Randy. “To me it says ‘We
don’t like the Jews,’ and they’re saying ‘We don’t like anything that has to do
with these people,”” Madison added.
Regardless, they’re not taking their flag down right now. “Tomorrow (Saturday), there’s actually a
community garage sale, and, I’m leaving it up, because I want people to know,
that are in this neighborhood, that this happened here,” said Randy. And Madison has a message for whoever
vandalized their flag, “Get your morals checked.”
Randy tells us she called the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and filed
a report. She tells us deputies assured her they would increase patrols in her
neighborhood.
