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Israeli Minister Itamar Ben Gvir banned the display of the Palestinian flag in all public spaces
1-11-2023
On Monday, January 9, the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, banned the display of the Palestinian flag in all public spaces.
Ben Gvir in his tweet said, “Today I directed the Israel Police to enforce the prohibition of flying any PLO flag that shows identification with a terrorist organization from the public sphere and to stop any incitement against the State of Israel. We will fight terrorism and the encouragement of terrorism with all our might!”
The Palestinian prime minister on accused Israel’s new ultra-nationalist government of trying to topple the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.
Palestinian premier Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Israeli measures, made in response to a Palestinian appeal for U.N. help, are “aimed at toppling the authority and pushing it to the brink financially and institutionally.”
“We consider these measures a new war against the Palestinian people, their capabilities and funds, and a war against the national authority, its survival and its achievements,” Shtayyeh said during his weekly Cabinet meeting.
Ben-Gvir drew widespread international condemnation when he visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site last week.
Adalah, an Arab minority legal rights group said “This gives the police unfettered discretion to ban the waving of the Palestinian flag under all circumstances.”
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem last year, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2004, when 197 Palestinians were killed.
Last May, Israeli riot police beat pallbearers at the funeral for slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, causing them to nearly drop the casket. Police ripped Palestinian flags out of people’s hands and fired stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
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