The Hamas surprise attack on Israel occurred over a month ago now and tempers have been high ever since. Particularly, as Israel’s counteroffensive has ramped up and tanks have rolled into Gaza while bombs fall on it from the air, the Democratic Party has faced a serious split over which side, if any, America should support.
Some say that there should be a ceasefire so Palestinian civilians can receive needed aid, some press that Israel must be given a free hand to respond with its full might to deter future attacks, and some on the fringe are more vocal in their outright support for the Palestinian cause.
Among those who is apparently all in on Israel is New Jersey political boss George Norcross. Mr. Norcross was given the boot from a Philadelphia Eagles game after he displayed a flag that was half the Israeli star of David banner and half Old Glory.
Footage posted to social media shows as much. In the clip that emerged, Norcross can be seen displaying the banner out of a private box at Lincoln Financial Field. He is then confronted by security personnel, who likely were there to tell him that he couldn’t display the flag. He was soon led away, with an official removing the banner.
Watch the incident here:
Security removed George Norcross from the Eagles game today because he hung an American and Israeli flag outside his box. Then they tore down the flag. pic.twitter.com/3agNgr3X0E
— Julie Roginsky (@julieroginsky) November 6, 2023
Though the tensions over the Hamas-Israel situation are high, the decision to remove the flag was likely apolitical in nature. Lincoln Financial Field’s policy guidelines provide that “signs, banners or similar items that are obscene or indecent, unrelated to the event, potentially offensive to other patrons, that may block the views of other fans or that are otherwise considered dangerous or inappropriate by the Eagles are prohibited.”
As football and Israel have nothing to do with each other, the flag was seen as unrelated by the guidelines and in need of being removed so that the team did not set a precedent that any banner could be displayed at games, in direct contravention of the rules.
Such is what the Eagles told Fox 29, saying, “Our stadium policies expressly prohibit signage containing any kind of non-game messaging to be hung from a stadium suite. Stadium staff repeatedly asked Mr. Norcross to remove the sign he hung outside of the suite. Instead of complying with the request, Mr. Norcross became physically and verbally abusive. Mr. Norcross was ejected from the stadium only after his abuse toward numerous stadium staff members continued. He was escorted from the suite level to the stadium’s ejection point, just as anyone else would be after engaging in abusive behavior in violation of stadium policy.”
Norcross, however, was unrepentant and savaged the team, accusing its security personnel of forcibly removing him from the box and blasting it for taking down the flag, saying that the flag was intended only as a “simple statement.”
In his words: “The Eagles leadership, the NFL and the security firm that conducts the security at the stadium are certainly responsible for these actions. They’re going to have to be accountable for that and answer to the manner of which they ejected me from the stadium, locking my arms behind my back, grabbing me like I’m some kind of thug in the street, it’s highly inappropriate and offensive to Jewish citizens because of what we were trying to make a statement for and a simple statement.”
"*" indicates required fields