(Canada Global Web News) In the latest crackdown by the nation’s new hard-line government, Israel’s minister of national security has instructed police to forbid Palestinian flags from being flown in public areas.
Ruling issued by Itamar Ben-Gvir comes after a number of other sanctions taken against the Palestinians since his appointment late last month.
Ben-Gvir sent a message on Twitter saying, “Today I ordered the Israel Police to enforce the prohibition of flying any PLO flag that demonstrates identification with a terrorist organisation from the public domain and to halt any incitement against the State of Israel.”
In retaliation for a Palestinian demand that the UN’s highest court provide a ruling on Israel’s 55-year military occupation of the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new administration has moved swiftly against the Palestinians.
According to a report by the Israeli rights organisation B’Tselem, the repeated actions have the potential to exacerbate tensions following the deadliest year of the Israel-Palestinian conflict in close to two decades.
The conflict over flying the Palestinian flag is not new, as seen by Ben-most Gvir’s recent directive.
Palestinian flag, which is red, green, and white, has significant importance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral in May of last year, Israeli riot police battered pallbearers, nearly causing them to drop the coffin.
In order to disperse the throng, police tore Palestinian flags from of people’s hands and deployed stun grenades.
However, the flag of the Palestinian Authority, which was established to rule over Gaza and a portion of the occupied West Bank, was acknowledged when Israel and the Palestinians signed a series of interim peace agreements known as the Oslo Accords. Israel opposes the PA doing any official activity in east Jerusalem, and police have in the past dispersed gatherings they believed to be PA-related.
