Israel’s new far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has claimed that he had given police the order to take down Palestinian flags from public areas.
According to the media, Israeli law does not forbid Palestinian flags but police and military are allowed to take them down if they pose a threat to the peace.
In a statement, Ben-Gvir claimed that raising the Palestinian flag amounted to “supporting terrorism.”
“It cannot be that lawbreakers wave terrorist flags, incite and encourage terrorism, so I ordered the removal of flags supporting terrorism from the public space and to stop the incitement against Israel,” Ben-Gvir said.
It came after the release last week of a long-serving Palestinian prisoner who hoisted a Palestinian flag while enjoying a hero’s welcome in his village in northern Israel. The prisoner was found guilty of kidnapping and killing an Israeli soldier in 1983.
Palestinians and Israel had long argued about where they fit into Israeli politics, juggling their Israeli citizenship with their Palestinian ancestry, with many of them identifying as or with the Palestinians.
