JERUSALEM – The Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed a preliminary reading on Wednesday a bill banning the raising of the Palestinian flag in the 48 territories.
54 Knesset members voted in favor of the bill, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which added that the bill was submitted by MP Almog Cohen of the Jewish Power party led by extremist National Defense Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
If the bill is approved in 3 readings, "it would be possible to impose a penalty of up to a year in prison on those who wave the Palestinian flag."
The bill, initiated by the government coalition headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, prohibits protests and demonstrations during which the Palestinian flag is raised in the 48 territories and occupied Jerusalem.
"There is a red line between legitimate democratic protest and protests and demonstrations during which the flags of those who do not recognize the State of Israel or do not allow the flag of Israel to be hoisted in their territory and territory are raised," the law's interpretation said.
Until now, the powers to "prohibit the raising of the Palestinian flag" have been given to the Inspector General of the Israel Police, which empowers him to instruct police officers to prohibit the raising of the Palestinian flag in public places, if the flag constitutes a "symbol of disturbing public order."
According to the Attorney General's instructions, since 2006, the police do not enforce this part of the powers and instructions to lower the Palestinian flag and prohibit its hoisting in public places, except when there is a "high level of probability of a serious violation of public peace."
54 Israeli Knesset Members Vote in Support of Bill (Getty Images)
Extremism and transgression
Commenting on the draft law, Adalah issued a statement saying that "police officers who prevent flag-hoisting at demonstrations and carry out arrests for raising flags are exceeding their powers and not acting in accordance with the law."
The law presented by the government coalition headed by Netanyahu is more extreme than the procedures and powers granted to the inspector general of police regarding the raising of the Palestinian flag in public places.
Adalah attributed this extremism and danger in the law to the fact that it aims to criminalize the raising of the Palestinian flag, the imposition of imprisonment and fines on individuals, as well as the imposition of criminal penalties for raising the flag in public places, not only in institutions supported by the Israeli government.
The rights center circulated a "position paper" that reviews "hostility and incitement against what the Palestinian flag and its raisers represent over the past years and how Israeli governments and various judicial authorities have dealt with it."
PCHR said that the draft law comes in the context of attempts to suppress freedom of political expression and freedom of expression of collective identity and rob it of Palestinians, which is also reflected in the Israeli police's illegal treatment of Palestinians in this context.
Adalah's stance comes in light of the dangerous escalation in recent months by the Israeli police and their commission of illegal acts against Palestinians for raising the flag in public places, which amounted to arresting demonstrators and arresting lawyers who give them legal advice, as well as in light of attempts to entrench the prohibition on raising the Palestinian flag in law.