In recent days, Israel withheld millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenues and stripped Palestinian officials of VIP privileges. Now, the country’s security minister has banned public performances of the Palestinian flag.
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Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security in the new government of Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel’s new far-right government has been accused of “overthrowing” the identified Palestinian Authority after pronouncing a series of new sanctions and banning Palestinian flags in public.
In recent days, Israel withheld millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenue, stripped Palestinian officials of VIP privileges and disrupted an assembly of Palestinian parents discussing their children’s education. On Sunday night, Israel’s security minister banned the public display of the Palestinian flag. has raised new considerations about Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government, which is the most devout and toughest cabinet in Israel’s history.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Israeli moves responded to a Palestinian call from the United Nations and “aimed to overthrow the authority and bring it to the point of financial and institutional breakdown. “
“We see those measures as a new war opposed to the Palestinian people, their functions and funds, and a war opposed to national authority, survival and achievements,” he said. Shtayyeh at his weekly cabinet meeting. On Sunday night, Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right arsonist he took last month, announced the questionable move to ban the Palestinian flag.
Shtayyeh said the move blocked “even maximum nonviolent tactics to combat the occupation. “Ahmad Aldeek, assistant to the Palestinian foreign minister, said: “The Israeli government is waging open war against the symbols and parts of the State of Israel. “Palestine. . . This reinforces our insistence on prosecuting the Israeli government and bringing it to justice in all foreign forums. “
Ben-Gvir wrote on Twitter: “Today I ordered the Israeli police to ban the flying of any [Palestine Liberation Organization] flag showing identity with a terrorist organization in the public sphere and to end all incitement opposed to the State of Israel. “
“We will be terrorists and inspire terrorism with all our might,” he added.
Waving the Palestinian flag is not illegal in Israel. Israeli media reported that officials did not know if they had the legal framework for the order.
The Israel Police did not comment directly on the minister’s blanket ban on the flag, but told The Independent: “The resolution to remove a flag is based on various points, adding the nature of the flag, the instances in which it was hoisted and any measures taken along with its display. These points are taken into account in the light of public protection and the possibility of crimes of criminals, such as a terrorist organization.
They added: “After a thorough review, the police will determine the appropriate course of action in a given incident in relation to the scenario and this will possibly be in consultation with other security officials. “
Netanyahu, who was sworn in as prime minister for the sixth time in December, defended the move, telling his cabinet on Sunday that the measures were aimed at what he called “an excessive anti-Israel step” at the United Nations.
The Palestinians recently took the UN court to give their opinion on Israel’s 55 years of military profession in the West Bank.
We have the right to and tell the world that we are suffering.
Since then, Netanyahu’s government has withheld nearly $40 million in Palestinian tax revenue and said it would transfer the money to victims of attacks by Palestinian militants. He also stripped Palestinian officials of VIP privileges and even disrupted an assembly of Palestinian parents discussing their children’s education. alleging that it was illegally funded through the Palestinian Authority.
The flag is just the latest move, and it came shortly after Ben-Gvir, who heads far-right ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit, drew widespread foreign condemnation when he visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site last week.
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said that while the use of the flag is not criminalized under Israeli law, a 2014 order from an Israeli deputy attorney general meant that “there is no absolute immunity to fly the flag” because police have the right to confiscate them if it results in a disturbance of public order or a breach of public order. or if it is because of terrorism.
However, this new order goes even further, wrongly implying that any public display of the Palestinian flag is itself a disturbance, the organization said.
“This provides the police with absolute discretion to ban the flying of the Palestinian flag in any circumstances,” he added.
In practice, Palestinian analysts say Israeli police arrest others for waving flags.
“This is not a new progression, it has been a long time coming,” added Yara Harawi, senior policy analyst at the Palestinian think tank Al Shabaka.
“This [new order] will expand the powers of police and border police to prosecute anyone. This new government will open the door to a crueler regime in the West Bank,” he told The Independent.
“It is worrying to see the accumulation of violence they will face at all levels. “
Israeli rights organization B’tselem said Sunday that 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2004, and reported that 146 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank, adding five women and 34 children, the youngest at just 12.
The United Nations said last month that more Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank in 2022 since it began recording deaths in 2005, blaming the bloodshed on Israel’s excessive use of force.
B’tSelem said 32 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Israel once thought that the Palestinian flag was that of a militant organization similar to Hamas or the Shiite Hezbollah. But after Israel and the Palestinians signed a series of interim peace agreements known as the Oslo Accords, the flag was identified as that of the Palestinian Authority. , which was created to administer Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu returned as prime minister in late December, forging the most devout and purest government in the country’s history by uniting his Likud party with ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies.
One of the first steps he took is to retroactively legalize outposts in the occupied West Bank, all of which are illegal under foreign law.
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Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security in the new government of Benjamin Netanyahu
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