Amnesty: Israeli Restrictions on Palestinian Flags are ‘Shameless Attempt to Legitimize Racism’

Israel advanced legislation to ban Palestinian flag from public spaces. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

New Israeli restrictions against flying the Palestinian flag are a “shameless attempt to legitimize racism”, rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday.

Israel’s new 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 Organisation) 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.

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.

(The New Arab, PC, SOCIAL)

(The Palestine Chronicle is a registered 501(c)3 organization, thus, all donations are tax deductible.)
Our Vision For Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out