Massachusetts man shot in scuffle with pro-Israel crowd as video emerges of another who self-immolated
A pro-Israel protester has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, as well as violation of a constitutional right causing injury, after shooting a passerby who appeared to be taunting the crowd carrying Israeli flags.
Authorities in Newton, Massachusetts - a town less than eight miles west of Boston proper - said the scuffle happened on Thursday evening, and that the man charged in this incident - 47-year-old Scott Hayes - is a legal gun owner.
Supporters have raised well over $100,000 for his legal defence via a GoFundMe page, saying he is an Iraq war veteran and a non-Jewish person who was “defending the Jewish people and its [sic] right for self determination and governance”.
Violent escalation
A video posted to X by The Daily Wire - a far-right media outlet - shows a man across the street from the pro-Israel protest shouting, “You are sick. You are sick. You are defending genocide.”
A female demonstrator off-camera can be heard shouting back, “You are so stupid.”
BREAKING: Anti-Israel man shot in stomach after charging through traffic to tackle a man at a pro-Israel demonstration outside Boston in Newton, Massachusetts.
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 13, 2024
Footage obtained exclusively by @KassyAkiva: pic.twitter.com/nsGN3MQVAO
The video then appears to jump to footage of the man running across the street and hurling himself at a member of the pro-Israel group, tackling him to the ground. That man was later identified as Hayes.
Two others are then seen attacking the as-yet-unnamed man from across the street, with one stomping on his chest and the other stepping on his face. The latter wore a shirt emblazoned with “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” across the back.
Someone off-camera can be heard saying, “Get off him.”
It is unclear at what exact moment the gun went off, but a faint shot can be heard before the 55-second video ends.
A second video also posted by The Daily Wire shows the immediate aftermath.
In another video, the man who fired the gun is seen providing medical care to the man who tackled him before first responders arrived. pic.twitter.com/wMtoowakr9
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 13, 2024
In the 47-second clip, Hayes appears to be checking on the shooting victim’s stomach and applying pressure where he was shot.
At his arraignment on Friday, supporters packed into the courtroom. Many took to social media to insist that Hayes only acted in self-defence.
Extreme act of protest
In Massachusetts, a man set himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Boston on 11 September. He was transported to hospital with serious burns, but no further news on his condition is known.
Video revealing his identity only surfaced via YouTube on Friday, though police have not confirmed who he is.
? The person who reportedly self-immolated outside the zionist consulate in Boston on 9/11 has surfaced in this Youtube video: “My name is Matt Nelson and I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. We are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” https://t.co/NclnMmdjMV pic.twitter.com/n6Wzw7qs8i
— Unity of Fields (@unityoffields) September 13, 2024
"My name is Matt Nelson and I'm about to engage in an extreme act of protest. We are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” he said in a clip outlining his motive.
“We are slaves to capitalism and the military industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care. The protest I'm about to engage in is a call to our government to stop supplying Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza, and to support the ICC indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government,” he said, as he read from his script.
“A democracy is supposed to serve the will of the people, not the interests of the wealthy. Take the power back. Free Palestine."
Middle East Eye spoke to longtime pro-Palestine activist Zoe, who asked that we not reveal her last name or where she lives. She says she was the first to post Nelson’s video to X on Friday - a day and a half after his self-immolation. Zoe told MEE she was tipped off about the video by a friend of Nelson’s.
“We all have to do something at this point,” she said. “People are literally being massacred. People are burning themselves alive. People are fighting to the death.”
NBC10, a local news station in Boston, said several eyewitnesses ran up to Nelson to try and put out the flames.
To date, there have been three known acts of self-immolation in the US since 7 October, all in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza and the American financing of what the United Nations has called “acts of genocide”.
In December 2023, an unnamed woman in Atlanta, Georgia, set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate with a Palestinian flag.
In February of this year, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the US Air Force, self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. The act was livestreamed on Twitch, and the widely-shared video marked a turning point that galvanised the movement calling for a ceasefire.
