A reporter for Reshet TV, one of the two broadcasting companies operating Israel’s Channel 2, on Thursday posted a video on the company’s Facebook page in which he was shown being attacked in Bnei Brak after waving an Israeli flag on the city’s streets. Two motorcyclists drove by him, grabbed the flag and broke it.

However, the haredi website Kol Hazman said that the video was orchestrated by the reporter himself after he failed to provoke locals.

The website quoted eyewitness to the incident, one of whom said, "After walking for four hours on the streets of Bnei Brak without being attacked, the reporter met a friend and asked him to attack him. It was clear that they were friends.”

A motorcyclist who was allegedly involved in the "acts of harassment" against the reporter told the website, "I was travelling with a friend on a motorcycle when I saw a crowd of people and photographers on the side of the road. The reporter asked, 'Come and do a piece with the motorcycle for a satirical skit.' I didn’t think twice and agreed. Only today when I saw the video I understood what I did and I regret that I did not think before I broke the flag. Had I thought about it, I would have understood that the journalist was taking advantage of me to shame my sector.”

Reshet TV, while denying the video was fabricated, chose to remove it from its Facebook page.

"Unfortunately, while the video that was published is not fabricated, in light of the possible harm to the public's feelings, and in light of the comments received, we decided to remove the video immediately,” the broadcaster said.

Later reports said that the reporter had tried to provoke an incident by standing and waving an Israeli flag in a neighborhood populated by anti-Zionists Satmar Hassidim, but no one reacted to his uncalled-for provocation,l in itself an act unworthy of a journalist, He then cooked up the staged "incident" and publicized it until the truth was revealed on social media.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)