JERUSALEM/LONDON: Bolstered Israeli restrictions against flying the Palestinian flag are “a shameless attempt to legitimize racism,” rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday.
Israel’s new firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered the police commander on Sunday to authorize officers to remove Palestinian flags flying in public spaces.
“I have instructed the Israeli police to enforce the ban on flying a PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) flag in public spaces, a sign of identification with a terrorist organization,” Ben-Gvir wrote on Twitter.
“We will fight terrorism and the supporters of terrorism with all our might,” he added.
After winning November elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a government last month with key posts taken by far-right allies.
They include Ben-Gvir of the Jewish Power party, who has a history of inflammatory remarks about Palestinians.
Amnesty called the new measures “repressive” and an “audacious attack on the rights to nationality, freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly,” in a statement sent to AFP.
In Israel and in annexed east Jerusalem, Israeli security forces already confiscate Palestinian flags, sometimes triggering violence.
In May last year, at the funeral of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera reporter, baton-wielding Israeli police beat pallbearers carrying the coffin, which was covered by a Palestinian flag.
Although it is not illegal to fly the Palestinian flag, Israeli laws prohibit the public display of a flag of an enemy country or group hostile to Israel’s existence.
“Israeli authorities say the directive is aimed at stopping ‘incitement’ against Israel, but it comes amid a string of measures designed to silence dissent and restrict protests, including those held in defense of Palestinian rights,” Amnesty said.
“The farcical pretexts for this directive cannot mask the fact that Israeli authorities are growing increasingly ruthless in their attempts to silence Palestinian voices,” the statement added.
Friends of Al-Aqsa, a pro-Palestinian organization in the UK, said it was not surprised by the news and described it “keeping with the far-right policies” of the new Israeli government.
“This latest move is a very serious attack on Palestinian identity and freedom. Just one week after Ben-Gvir’s highly provocative visit to Al-Aqsa, it is a highly concerning sign of what is to come with Israel’s new far-right government of extremists,” said the nongovernmental organization, which champions equality and justice in Palestine and stands against Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime.
“The Palestine flag represents resistance to 75 years of illegal occupation and Israel’s brutal apartheid regime. It is a symbol of Palestinian strength, resistance and self-determination” said Shamiul Joarder, head of public affairs at FOA.
“FOA will now lift the Palestine flag higher than ever and encourages everyone who cares about injustice to do the same,” he added in a statement.
(With AFP)
