JERUSALEM – Amid a sea of Israeli flags at the entrance to the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, Abdullah al-Hajj walked up to a group of far-right Jewish protesters, some of them shouting racist chants, and raised the Palestinian flag above his head .
He knew he only had a few seconds.
To cheers from supporters and booing from the Jewish protesters who erupted around him, Mr al-Hajj, 61, was quickly grabbed by three paramilitary police officers who wrestled the flag from his hands and carried him away.
“After I raised the flag, I didn’t care what happened to me, whether I was killed, my bones were broken or I was arrested,” Mr al-Hajj said at his home in Jericho on Israel’s roadmap. occupied West Bank. , in which he tells how he confronted the far-right rally in late May. “It was important for me to show that this land belongs to Palestinians.”
The Palestinian flag is not banned in Israel, but displaying it is increasingly attacked by Israeli authorities seeking to tackle displays of Palestinian nationalism. This is especially the case in East Jerusalem, the half of the city populated mainly by Palestinians.
When President Biden visited last week, American flags hung over Jerusalem for days, including along the edges of East Jerusalem. But most Palestinian flags hoisted there are removed by authorities within hours.
The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, gave preliminary approval last month to a bill that would ban the flag on university campuses, though its fate seems unclear after the government falls. And in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, emboldened Jewish settlers remove Palestinian flags displayed in Palestinian cities, sometimes bearing the protection from the Israeli Army.
East Jerusalem was taken by Israel in 1967 and later annexed as part of the capital, but most of the world still considers it occupied territory. The Palestinian flag is practically absent from the streets, while the blue and white Israeli flag hangs from street lamps and the homes of Jewish settlers. Palestinian residents, unable to raise their flags at their homes, sometimes resort to painting murals in black, white, green and red.
“What is happening today is that there is a movement within the Knesset and beyond to focus on the flag as an expression of terrorism or support for terrorism,” said Fady Khoury, a civil rights lawyer with Adalah, a Palestinian legal rights group. “It is part of an ongoing effort to criminalize certain aspects of collective Palestinian identity.”
The Palestinian flag has never been explicitly banned, but under Israeli law it is illegal to fly the flag of a group that the state considers a terrorist organization. Before the signing of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, which included the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO, and by extension the Palestinian flag, was banned.
That changed in 1993 when Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and the flag began to appear over East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
But when the second Palestinian intifada broke out in 2000, Israel’s suppression of the insurgency included a crackdown on expressions of Palestinian identity, including the flag.
Since then, in the absence of a law banning the flag, Israeli police have used other ordinances, including public order laws, to arrest and charge Palestinians who raise the flag, lawyers and human rights groups said.
“The way it’s been justified, especially the arrests, is by associating flag-waving with disorderly conduct — which is a separate offense,” Mr Khoury said. “There is no explicit clause in any legal document that criminalises flag-waving, but it is considered a crime by individual police officers on the basis of disorderly conduct.”
Israeli police, asked about the seizure of Mr al-Hajj’s flag in May and other clashes that day between officers and Palestinian protesters, said in a statement: “The hoisting is not an offense.” But when the act puts lives at risk, it added: “The commander in charge in the field has the authority to take all necessary measures to stop the threat and maintain law and order.”
However, Israel’s own courts have regularly dismissed cases directly related to flag-waving.
In September, a judge in Jerusalem ruled that a protester arrested for waving the Palestinian flag should be released from detention, adding that police had failed to explain how public order and security had been disrupted.
Earlier this year, a member of the right-wing Likud party proposed a bill that would ban the flying of a hostile state or Palestinian Authority flag at state-funded institutions, namely colleges and universities. Those found guilty would be sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of not less than 10,000 shekels, about $3,000.
The bill gained support in the Knesset after students at Ben Gurion University were allowed to celebrate Nakba Day, commemorating the flight and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians when Israel was founded in 1948, with a demonstration of a Palestinian flag, infuriating some Israelis .
The bill received preliminary approval, but after the collapse of the Israeli parliament last month, it would have to be re-tabled by a new government.
After Mr al-Hajj’s display of Palestinian nationalism broke down in May, he was carried to a nearby police tower by four officers and later released.
A few blocks away, where dozens of Palestinians had gathered for a counter-protest against the right-wing Jewish rally, police officers attacked a group of people waving Palestinian flags and fired smoke grenades at them, police said. video from the scene.
“Essentially you don’t see the Palestinian flag in Jerusalem on buildings, on cars or on anything in public,” said Munir Nuseibah, a human rights lawyer. “If a Palestinian tries to hoist a Palestinian flag, he is greeted with violence.”
The flag is also being fought over in Palestinian territories such as the West Bank.
In the Palestinian city of Huwarra, that battle has become an almost daily occurrence, the mayor, Nasir Huwari, said. An Israeli settler drives through the village was recently captured on video climbing a utility pole and ripping a small Palestinian flag.
Now settlers regularly come to remove flags in Huwarra, often under the protection of the Israeli military, Huwari said. There has also been an increase in violence from the settlers, who have attacked local shops, he said.
“Palestinians live day and night under the Israeli flag,” he said. “So why do they want to remove my flag and this is an area under the Palestinian Authority? They’re trying to stir things up.”
In response to a question about the removal of the flags by the settlers, an Israeli military spokeswoman said it is the responsibility of the Israeli police to enforce the law when crimes or offenses are committed by Israeli citizens.
The Israeli police said in a statement that if suspects are involved in a criminal offense “their further investigation will be carried out by the police.” It did not say whether it had investigated recent incidents where settlers knocked down Palestinian flags.
Two weeks before the rally, the world witnessed shocking scenes at the funeral of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed while reporting violence between Israeli troops and Palestinian men. most likely from an Israeli bullet.
Israeli police attacked mourners as they carried her coffin and waved the Palestinian flag. A video showed a police officer grabbing small flags and throwing them to the ground.
Tony, Mrs. Abu Akleh, said police told him before the funeral they did not want the flag raised or mourners chanting nationalist slogans.
“As much as they tried to remove the flag, the flag kept flying,” Mr Abu Akleh said of the violent events at his sister’s funeral. “I don’t think people came to the funeral just to raise the flag, but Shireen is first and foremost a Palestinian.”
Even in the hours after Mrs. Abu Akleh was murdered, the police objected to raising the flag in her honour. As mourners poured into the family’s home in northern Jerusalem, officers demanded that a small Palestinian flag hanging atop the two-story building be removed, Abu Akleh said. The family refused.
Weeks later, the flag was still waving in the wind.
Myra Noveck and Error Yazbek contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Gabby Sobelman from Rehovot, Israel.