The embarrassing blunder quickly went viral, amassing over 9 million views across various social media platforms.
In the video, Matthews approaches Efi’s Gyro restaurant in Montclair, New Jersey in broad daylight and proceeds to rip down Greek flag bunting and decorative lights from the establishment’s exterior while proclaiming “Free Palestine, b****”.
Police launched an investigation in March after the restaurant’s owner reported than an unknown woman tore down their string of flags while screaming there’s a “genocide going on,” according to local media.
For several months Police had no leads, until Matthews published her now-viral blunder online.
In the video, titled “The time I mistakenly thought the flag for Greek (sic) was for Israel and took the restaurants flag down OMG”, Matthews can be heard saying, as she clutches the flag of Greece in her hand: “You see this s***? I don’t stand for it.”
“What you looking at?” Matthews asks the confused-looking restaurant workers inside, “You know damn well there’s a genocide. You know there’s a genocide. Now stop it. I’m taking this s*** down,”
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“It’s nothing against people who are Jewish, but this is not okay,” she clarified to two employees who had come out to check on her. “Be proud of your heritage?” she asks them, “you understand there’s a genocide right?”
After the pair politely informs the misguided Matthews that the flag represents Greece, not Israel, she asks in disbelief: “What? Really?
“Oh, I thought it was Israel – my bad. Really? Oh s***, it looked like Israel.”
Matthews, still holding the flag bunting, asked the employees if they “want it back”.
The employee replied: “Of course we want it back, but you can’t be doing that. It’s not okay.”
“Well, I did it already. Are you sure this is – let me look this up right [now].”
The restaurant’s owner, Efi Mihalis, confirmed to The New York Post that the act was not a skit, insisting her employees were “taken aback” when it happened.
Matthews was charged on Tuesday with intimidation, according to the Montclair Police Department, and is due in court on December 3.
