Israel orders removal of Palestinian flags from public places

Jerusalem: Israel new National Security minister informed that he had instructed security forces to remove Palestinian flags from public places, Reuters reported.

The far-right minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is the leader of an ultranationalist party in Benjamin Netanyahu's new government and controls the police.

So far, Israeli law has not outlawed Palestinian flags, but police and military have the right to remove them if they wish to, citing the threat to public order.

The minister's order comes after the release of a long-serving Palestinian prisoner who waves the Palestinian flag and receives a hero welcome at his village in northern Israel. The prisoner was convicted for the kidnapping and killing of an Israeli soldier in 1983.

Minister Ben-Gvir said that lawbreakers should not be let wave terrorist flags to incite and encourage terrorism. Therefore he ordered the removal of those flags that support terrorism from public space, he said. According to him, the intention was to stop incitement against Israel.

The Arabs in Israel are one-fifth of the population there, and the majority of them descend from Palestinians who remained there when the new state formed in 1948 after the war of independence.

The Palestinian descendants always argued for their space in Israeli politics. They had balanced their Palestinian heritage with Israeli citizenship, writes Reuters.