The long history of Israel’s war on the Palestinian flag
An Israeli Police Border officer on guard during a demonstration against the construction of Israel´s separation barrier in Bil´in near Ramallah with a Palestinian flag behind him, 9 June 2006
Barak Mayer writes in +972:
Uri Avnery, the late left-wing Israeli journalist, activist, and parliamentarian, was well ahead of his time. In a photo published in his iconoclastic weekly newspaper, HaOlam HaZeh (“This World”), from 1968 — just a year after the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, began — Avnery can be seen displaying the Palestinian flag during a speech advocating for the end of Israeli military rule over the occupied territories.
In those days, the vast majority of Jewish Israelis would have had trouble even recognizing the Palestinian flag. But as Avnery spoke, he pulled out the flag and declared, in language that today seems naïve, perhaps even patronizing: “We will take this flag out of the hands of our enemies and put it in the hands of the Palestinians who are ready for peace. Instead of a grenade — a handshake!”
In the half century since, Israeli attitudes toward the Palestinian flag have undergone a series of developments, though many still see it as a symbol of “terrorism.” Today, it is under renewed attack by far-right MKs and their constituents, who seek not only to remove the flag from any public display, but to outlaw it entirely.
There are currently 11 bills pending approval in the Knesset to ban the Palestinian flag in various forms. This comes in the wake of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s directive at the start of this year ordering police to crack down on the flying of the flag in public spaces, which provided the pretext for a recent police raid on the offices of the Arab-Jewish Hadash party in Nazareth to confiscate a flag raised on the building. But history shows us that such attempts to quash Palestinian identity and symbols never work; if anything, they backfire.
Rise of nationalism
The Palestinian flag was first flown around a century ago as a symbol of pan-Arabism. The design comes from the flag of the Arab Revolt of 1916-18 against the Ottoman Empire, and the flag of the Hejaz Kingdom that was born as a result of that rebellion; Arab nationalists have been using it in Palestine ever since.
On Nov. 26, 1928, a reporter for Haaretz, under the pen name “Gog and Magog” (biblical characters who represent Armageddon), wrote: “I see that the Arab youth in the Land of Israel, who are getting organized now, are choosing a flag for themselves, the colors of which are the colors of the general Arab flag: white, green, red, and black.” The writer laments: “It is worth noting that, although the colors of the Zionist flag have been determined for decades, its design has not yet been determined, and everyone makes their own flag … If the flag is a symbol, then it is appropriate to determine its final shape once and for all.”