Michael Abrahams | Israel’s hatred of the Palestinian flag

Recently, I posted a question on my Facebook page, “Why are so many people who express pro-Palestinian sentiments being censored?” In a conversation with one of my Facebook friends about the post, I mentioned that you can get in trouble for flying the Palestinian flag in Germany. He began his response by saying, “Firstly, there is no Palestinian flag, as there is no country called Palestine.”

His dismissive retort baffled and offended me. I was disturbed for several reasons. To say there is “no Palestinian flag” is untrue, and he must know that. Not only is the statement false, but to deny that a flag that represents a group of people (numbering 14 million, of which over five million reside in the state of Palestine) from a particular geographical region exists is disrespectful, demeaning and bigoted.

The reasoning that there is no flag because “there is no country called Palestine” is not only flawed but ludicrous. Even if Palestine is not a country, it is a state that, as of June 2, is recognised by 139 of the 193 United Nations (UN) member states. Further, flags do not only represent countries and states. For example, the LGBT community has a variety of flags representing various sectors of it.

Flags are of paramount importance for the people they represent. They unify them, give them a sense of pride, and reaffirm their identity. Palestinians have endured a tremendous amount of trauma, from the Nakba in 1948, when over 700,000 of them were displaced, to decades of living in what many consider to be an apartheid state under Israel, to what amounts to collective punishment by Israel today, during which more than 10,000 have been killed and over 1,000,000 displaced. Their flag is of immeasurable significance to them. Unfortunately, the Palestinian flag has been scorned, disparaged and disrespected by Israel for decades.

BANNED

Following the 1967 war, Israel took control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and later annexed East Jerusalem. At that time, Israel not only banned the Palestinian flag from being waved in occupied territories but also banned its depiction in artwork. Subsequently, in the 1980s, three Ramallah-based artists were arrested for merely using the Palestinian flag’s colours in their art. There are reports of Israeli police even taking down balloons with the colours of the Palestinian flag – red, green, black, and white. To circumvent flag-related persecution, Palestinians have resorted to drawing and painting sliced watermelons, the colours of which resemble the colours of their beloved flag, as a sign of protest, making the watermelon a symbol of resistance to occupation.

After the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1994, the flag was recognised as that of the Palestinian Authority, which was created to administer Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank. Subsequently, the Israeli attorney general advised against the opening of criminal investigations against individuals for waving the flag. Unfortunately, the persecution has persisted.

In May 2022, Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli gunfire while reporting on an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) raid in the West Bank city of Jenin. Despite wearing protective gear and a vest that displayed the word ‘PRESS’, she was shot in the head.

On the day she was killed, Israeli police entered her family home while her grieving relatives were receiving condolences, tore down a Palestinian flag, and told them to turn off patriotic music. The following day, Israeli authorities summoned her brother and told him to instruct mourners not to carry Palestinian flags or recite Palestinian chants. On the day of her funeral, dozens of Israeli police officers stormed the procession and violently tried to stop the mourners from marching. The main target, however, was the Palestinian flag.

The police attacked everyone carrying the flag, kicking mourners and using batons to hit them as they struggled to hold up Abu Akleh’s coffin, draped in a Palestinian flag, which almost fell. The assaults forced the mourners to place the coffin in a hearse, the window of which was smashed by the police to remove a flag that was laid inside. Palestinian flags were also removed from outside the church where the deceased’s relatives were receiving condolences. Later, two mourners were arrested for simply raising the Palestinian flag.

ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS

In January, Israel’s new Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a directive which placed additional restrictions on the display of Palestinian flags in public spaces in Israel. Ben-Gvir described the Palestinian flag as a symbol of “terrorism” and instructed Israeli police to remove it from public places.

Today, with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the censoring of the Palestinian flag has intensified, with the flag even being in the crosshairs of the governments of some other countries, especially in Europe. For example, the former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman stated that the waving of a Palestinian flag “may be illegal” when intended to “glorify acts of terrorism”.

The killing of Abu Akleh and the persecution and abuse of her family and those who mourned and dared to display the flag exposed the unbridled hatred Israel harbours for the Palestinian flag and those who dare to show or wave it.

No fair, rational reason can be offered for censoring or banning the Palestinian flag. The flag does not represent a terrorist organisation. It represents a dispossessed and disenfranchised group of people who continue to be persecuted. Equating the Palestinian people with a terrorist organisation smacks of disingenuity and bigotry. To ban and censor the flag or deny its existence serves to further demean the Palestinian people by suppressing their freedom of expression, unity, and national identity. The unrelenting assault on the flag is evidence of a mindset that it is preferable to oppressing and dominating a set of people rather than acknowledging and respecting their existence and attempting to co-exist with them. It is psychological warfare and must be condemned.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on X , formerly Twitter, @mikeyabrahams.