Itamar Ben-Gvir’s order follows a series of punitive measures against Palestinians since the Israeli extremist took office.
Israel’s national security minister has ordered police to ban Palestinian flags in public places in the latest campaign by the country’s new extremist government.
Itamar Ben-Gvir’s order follows a series of other punitive measures against Palestinians since they expired last month.
“Today I ordered the Israeli police to ban the flying of any PLO flag that shows identity with a terrorist organization in the public sphere and to prevent any incitement against the State of Israel,” Ben-Gvir announced on Twitter.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government has opposed the Palestinians in retaliation for Palestinian pressure for the UN Supreme Court to give its opinion on Israel’s 55 years of military activity in the West Bank.
He withheld nearly $40 million (£32. 9 million) of Palestinian tax revenue and said he would transfer the money to victims of the attacks through Palestinian militants, stripped Palestinian officials of VIP privileges and even disrupted an assembly of Palestinian parents discussing their children’s education. alleging it was illegally funded through the Palestinian Authority.
Ben-Gvir, a far-right arsonist known for his anti-Arab rhetoric, drew widespread foreign condemnation when he saw Jerusalem’s holiest site last week.
The repeated moves have the potential to ratchet up tensions after the deadliest year of Israeli-Palestinian standoff in just about two decades, according to a report by Israeli rights organization B’Tselem.
Ben-Gvir’s most recent order is the first war to beat the Palestinian flag.
The red, green and white Palestinian flag has wonderful symbolism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last May, Israeli insurgency police beat pallbearers at the funeral of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead while covering an army raid on the Jenin refugee camp. Police snatched Palestinian flags from people’s hands and fired stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
Israel once thought that the Palestinian flag was that of a militant organization similar to the Palestinian Hamas or Lebanon’s 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 the Palestinian Authority, which was created to administer Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank. Israel opposes any official PA activity in East Jerusalem, and police have covered up occasions when they say they were connected to the Palestinian Authority.
Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that the anti-Palestinian measures were aimed at what he called “an excessive measure against Israel” at the UN.
Palestinian citizens of Israel make up 20 percent of the population and have had a turbulent relationship with the state since its creation in 1948, when thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced to flee due to events related to the status quo of the State of Israel. Israel. .
Those who remained citizens, however, were long viewed with suspicion by some Israelis because of their ties to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, territories captured through Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Palestinians are the 3 spaces for a long-term independent state. Netanyahu’s new government is ruled by hardliners opposed to a Palestinian state.