Will the Flag Battle Cause a New Escalation Between ‘Israel’ and the Palestinians?

It seems that the image of the Palestinian flag that flew over a huge demonstration called by the Israeli government and far-right groups near Bab al-Amud in al-Quds (Jerusalem) on the morning of May 29, 2022, using a small drone, has angered and maddened the Tel Aviv government and Israeli far-right officials, which may herald the possibility of a new conflict between “Israel” and the Palestinians.

The raising of Palestinian flags at Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion Universities in Beersheba, in two demonstrations organized by Arab students on the occasion of the Nakba Day in the middle of last month, angered Israeli far-right officials, who made racist statements against Arabs and Palestinians after that.

However, Israeli parties criticized the Israeli obsession with raising the Palestinian flag. Haaretz newspaper denounced what the occupation is doing, noting that this reminds the world of the sin of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

 

Israeli Obsession

On the evening of June 01, 2022, the Israeli Knesset approved a bill prohibiting raising the Palestinian flag in universities, and government and official institutions that receive government funding, after it was approved by the Legislation Committee in the Israeli government last week, according to the BBC reported in its report on June 02.

This comes in light of the escalating Israeli aggressive tendency against the Palestinian flag, as the Israeli security services suppress all events that witness the raising of the Palestinian flag in the 48 areas, the city of Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, while settlers have launched, for days, attacks on Palestinian villages and towns, and are removing Palestinian flags from its streets.

It is not the first time that the issue of flags has been raised, and perhaps the closest incident that witnessed global condemnation is the Israeli police’s attempt to prevent the raising of the Palestinian flag during the funeral of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, as they confiscated all flags on the order of the Jerusalem Police Chief.

In the midst of escalating and charged tensions between “Israel” and the Palestinians during the last period, the Israeli flags march, with the participation of 50,000 settlers, began this year on what is known as the unification of Jerusalem on May 29, the day when the Israelis commemorate the anniversary of their seizure of the Old City and East Jerusalem in 1967, which It is considered one of the most provocative acts for the Palestinians.

It is noteworthy that the city of Jerusalem, which includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is one of the issues that have stalled political negotiations between the Palestinians and “Israel” since the end of March 2014.

In turn, Ismail Maslamani, an expert on Israeli affairs, said in a statement to Al-Estiklal: “The broad title of the events taking place in the city of Jerusalem recently is the struggle for sovereignty, and the flags are one of the most important symbols of that sovereignty.”

He added, “The Palestinian flag has become one of the most important tools of struggle that the Palestinians resort to provoke the Israeli occupation. Sometimes it becomes more powerful than a missile because it is a symbol of the identity and sovereignty of the State of Palestine.”

In the same context, Mr. Maslamani explained that “at the time of the first Palestinian uprising, hundreds were killed, and thousands were arrested in order to raise the Palestinian flag.”

As for the interpretation of the Israeli obsession with the Palestinian flag, the Palestinian expert explained that “the Palestinian flag has caused the Israeli occupation an intractable crisis, as well as an inferiority complex for the Jewish state. Especially that it has become an expressive symbol of the Palestinian identity and a source of nuisance and a challenge to the alleged Jewish hegemony over the city of Jerusalem.”

 

Israeli Double Standards

The battle of flag between the Palestinians and the Israelis was also raised in mid-May and occupied a wide area of discussion inside “Israel,” after demonstrations at Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion Universities in Beersheba, and Arab students raising Palestinian flags to commemorate the Nakba Day, which angered the Jewish students, who beat them, which necessitated the intervention of the police to stop the event, which lasted for several hours.

The incident also angered Israeli officials, led by Education Minister Yifat Biton and Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who in turn decided to cut the Ben-Gurion University budget.

Israeli officials claimed that the university's behavior constituted a violation of Jewish values that the law seeks to protect and that the Arab student demonstration witnessed a denial of the existence of the State of “Israel” as a Jewish and democratic state.

As a result, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved on May 29 a bill prohibiting the raising of Palestinian flags in higher education institutions, and then the Knesset approved it in preliminary reading this week.

However, it is still necessary to vote on the bill in three readings, before it becomes a binding law, and the penalty for raising the Palestinian flag in areas inside Israel, including occupied Jerusalem, becomes imprisonment for a year and obligated to pay a fine.

The unjust draft resolution came at the initiative of Likud MP Eli Cohen, who justified the bill as seeking to put an end to incitement against the people of “Israel” from a trampled group of Arab citizens, as he said.

While the legal advisor to the University President's Committee, lawyer Rachel Ben-Ari, responded to the Israeli officials by saying: “They are mad at us with false accusations. Universities do not break the law. The fine lines between freedom of expression, and incitement and violence require a lot of wisdom in order to know how to deal with it.”

In turn, Haaretz newspaper warned in its report on May 30 that “the Palestinian flag is the flag of the Palestinian people, and officially it is the flag of the Palestinian Authority, which is the authority that was established by a political agreement with “Israel”, and here we are talking about a legitimate symbol of authority recognized by the whole world.”

The newspaper stressed that “the Israeli bill criminalizing those who raise the Palestinian flag is a crazy proposal and indicates Israeli extremism,” noting that “the Israeli obsession with the Palestinian flag brings back to memory the sin of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which Israeli society denies.”

The municipality of Ramat Gan in central “Israel” had removed the huge Palestinian flag that was hung next to the Israeli flag above the city's stock exchange building after the issue sparked an uproar and protests on social media.

The Israeli left-wing group Mahzekim had hung the Palestinian flag next to a huge Israeli flag under the title (We're Supposed to Live Together), in protest against plans to ban raising the Palestinian flag in Israeli educational institutions.

The British New Statesman magazine revealed how the Israeli authorities are using the Palestinian flag as a political pressure card, and adopting double standards regarding it.

The magazine added in its report on May 26 that “it allows far-right Israelis to raise their flags and chant racist slogans in areas where Palestinians live and work while exercising violence and threats against anyone who raises the Palestinian flag.”

On its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned what it called “the open and continuous war of occupation against the Palestinian flag.”

“The Palestinian flag is the flag of the Palestinian people and the symbol of their existence, and it is the symbol of the identity of the land, and the flag of the State of Palestine,” it said in an official statement.

It added that “the war on the Palestinian flag and the prevention of its raising in the land of the State of Palestine means that “Israel” treats the West Bank, including East Jerusalem as if it were an inseparable part of the State of “Israel.”

The ministry indicated that “Israel's battle against the Palestinian flag is a failed battle and it will not be able to withstand the insistence of the Palestinian people and their adherence to the flag of their freedom and independence. The Palestinian flag that was raised at the headquarters of the United Nations will not fall on the land of the State of Palestine.”

 

Battle of the Flag

Since the events of the Battle of Seif al-Quds in May 2021, the Israelis have felt a loss of sovereignty over what they consider their capital in Jerusalem after the resistance rockets launched from Gaza broke up the flag march at that time.

Successively, the Palestinians tried to resort to the Palestinian flag to raise it in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as a message of confirmation of the city's identity, which is what the Israeli occupation tried to confront by arresting anyone who tried to raise the Palestinian flag in the city.

This was also evident in the Israeli police’s dispersal of the funeral of Al-Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh when the Inspector General of Police Yaakov Shabtai stipulated that Palestinian flags not be raised at Abu Akleh’s funeral, which explains the violent behavior of the Israeli police in dealing with the event.

This confirms the insistence of Naftali Bennett's government on the flag march on May 29, which roamed the streets of Old Jerusalem, with the aim of scoring a victory in the battle of flag with the Palestinians.

The Mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion, had condemned the hanging of the Palestinian flag by Jerusalemites over the walls of Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan, noting that this is a challenge to the Israeli control over the city and violates the sovereignty and unity of the capital of the State of Israel.

Some far-right lawmakers even called for the criminalization of raising the Palestinian flag, as Likud MP Miki Zohar called for imposing severe penalties, up to deportation, for anyone who raises the Palestinian flag or burns the Israeli flag in Jerusalem.

In fact, raising the Palestinian flag is not considered a crime for which Israeli law is held accountable, since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Attorney General of the Israeli government issued a directive to law enforcement authorities not to open a criminal file against those who raise the Palestinian flag, and interpreted this as an Israeli recognition the Palestinian Authority and sign an agreement with it.

The situation continued until 2021 after the Battle of Seif al-Quds when the Attorney General for Criminal Affairs modified his position, which considered that there is no absolute immunity for raising the Palestinian flag.

On the other hand, recent statistics published by the Association for Civil Rights in “Israel” revealed that the majority of arrests of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces in East Jerusalem during the past year were due to their raising of the Palestinian flag.