International reporting
Occupied West Bank: flag war between Israelis and Palestinians
Audio 02:30
Palestinians from the village of Susya wave their national flag in front of Jewish residents of the homonymous settlement, who do the same, on the outskirts of the village of Yatta, on September 24, 2021. © AFP / HAZEM BADER
By: Sami Boukhelifa Follow
3 mins
Blue and white on one side, red, black, white and green on the other.
The flag war is declared between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Jewish state has just passed a law to ban the Palestinian emblem from its institutions, such as its universities.
The text still needs to be approved by Parliament before being finally adopted.
And at the same time, a real battle is taking place on the ground, and particularly in the occupied Palestinian territories.
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From our correspondent in Jerusalem,
In the Arab village of Howarah, you now have to open your eyes to see a Palestinian flag.
One hangs from the minaret of the mosque.
Two or three others float discreetly above certain houses.
Donkeys planted his on the roof of his taxi.
“
Here, we are in a Palestinian village.
It's not as if we waved our flag in the center of Tel Aviv or in Jerusalem, where it's disputed.
We are in the West Bank, it is Palestine.
Legally, we have the right to hang Palestinian flags,
he says.
It's in the Oslo Accords.
Even Israel recognizes the Palestinian flag.
He is recognized all over the world.
But the settlers do not accept it.
So they come and take down our flags.
Who would accept that his flag be unhooked and trampled
?
This is unacceptable.
They come here, they provoke us, and if we react, we get repressed.
»
An incident relayed on social networks
A video, shared on social media by an Israeli Arab lawmaker, shows a group of Jewish settlers in the center of Howarah.
One of them climbs on a lamppost and takes down the Palestinian flag under the gaze of the inhabitants of the village.
General outcry.
The Israeli army intervenes quickly to put an end to it.
A soldier points his gun at the crowd and summons the Palestinians to be quiet.
He ends up throwing a stun grenade.
Motez, a young shopkeeper from the neighborhood, witnessed the scene.
“
Here, next to Howarah, is the worst settlement in the entire West Bank.
This is Yzhar's colony.
These people are hateful.
They are extremists.
They say
: death to the Arabs.
They would like to eradicate us
,” laments the young man.
A difficult cohabitation with the colony of Yzhar
The settlement of Yzhar overlooks the village of Howarah.
It only takes ten minutes by car to reach it.
Camera, security barrier.
This is where Shalom Khalfon, a Jew of French origin, lives with his family.
For him, the Palestinian flag is the emblem of terrorism.
“
When they put up the Palestinian flag, it means
: it's ours.
Those who wave the flags are thugs who sow terror.
We, this place, we want it to be ours.
Let it be secure.
When my wife and kids pass through here, I want this place to be 100
% safe.
»
To guarantee the security of the settlers, Israeli soldiers are deployed in the center of Howarah.
According to Billal Awda, a villager, his ten-year-old nephew was arrested by the army for waving a Palestinian flag.
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Israel
Palestinian territories
Israelo-Palestinian conflict