Itamar Ben-Gvir bans the Palestinian flag

ALBAWABA - Israel would like to smother it out of existence. The latest order to ban the Palestinian flag has come from Israel's new extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir. 

On Sunday, he instructed the Israeli police to ban the waving of Palestinian flags in public places according to Anadolu. 

The case of the Palestinian flag has become controversial in Israeli politics over the years. It is not banned but it is not encouraged either. However, the latest instructions to ban the flag in public places in the so-called 1948 areas where Palestinian Arabs live inside Israel is making them very angry. 

They form 20 percent of the Israeli population and are citizens of the state yet, they see the flag as an important symbol of their cultural and political identity. They argue Israel has no right to ban the flag in their areas.  

"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 tweeted as quoted by the Turkish news agency.

Ben-Gvir made his order, whose legality is still being debated, after the release of Karim Younis, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner was set free after his 40-year incarceration in Israeli jail. His village, Ara in the 1948 territories welcomed with him brandishing Palestinian flags and other nationalist symbols.