Ben-Gvir orders Israeli police to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces

Israel's police has been instructed to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces by the country's new far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. The minister informed the media about the same on Sunday. Ben-Gvir heads an ultranationalist party in Benjamin Netanyahu's new government and as minister oversees the police.

Israeli law does not outlaw Palestinian flags but if the police and soldiers deem them a threat to public order, they have the right to remove them.

The latest decision follows the release last week of a long-serving Palestinian prisonerwho waved a Palestinian flag in his village later. Convicted of kidnapping and killing an Israeli soldier in 1983, he receiveda hero's welcome in his village in northern Israel.

Ben-Gvir, in a statement, said that waving the Palestinian flag is an act in support of terrorism.

"It cannot be that lawbreakers wave terrorist flags, incite and encourage terrorism, so I ordered the removal of flags supporting terrorism from the public space and to stop the incitement against Israel," Ben-Gvir said.

Arabs in Israel account for around a fifth of the population with most of them being descendants of Palestinians who remained within the newly founded state after its 1948 war of independence. They have been unclear of their place in Israel's politics and most of them identify themselves as or with the Palestinians.

(With inputs from agencies)

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