A Broadway theater producer is the most recent New Yorker to be caught on movie overtly tearing down fliers of civilians in Israel kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, The Submit has realized.
In a video shared on-line by neighborhood weblog I Love the Higher West Aspect, James L. Simon, who co-produced the 2022 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “Demise of a Salesman,” is seen at West 62nd Avenue and Broadway utilizing scissors to take away a poster that includes one of many roughly 200 hostages taken by Hamas throughout its Oct. 7 shock assault on Israel.
The stone-faced Simon then crumpled up the flier, which had been taped to a site visitors sensor field within the closely Jewish neighborhood, earlier than chucking it right into a rubbish can and silently strolling off, the footage confirmed.
“You’re going to a darkish and devious place if you happen to’ve come to a spot the place you’re ripping posters off the wall of Israeli hostages, of harmless individuals held captive by terrorists,” former Broadway producer Adam Epstein, who hosts the podcast Soiled Media, instructed The Submit.
Simon, who has additionally produced Broadway revivals of “Pippin” and “Bells Are Ringing,” instructed The Submit he took down the fliers for the aim of retaining the town’s streets clear, not for antisemitic causes, and apologized for offending anybody.
“I’m a robust supporter of free speech and encourage individuals to precise their opinions, however all I’m asking is to do it legally,” he stated, citing metropolis Sanitation Division guidelines.
Movies of New Yorkers ripping down comparable kidnap posters across the metropolis have surfaced, placing on blast a New York College pupil, teenagers on the Higher East Aspect, and Brooklyn husband-wife couple.