From the Liveblog of
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Ministers to vote next week on banning Palestinian flag at state-backed institutions
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation is slated to vote Sunday on a bill prohibiting the waving of the flags of enemy nations or the Palestinian Authority on the grounds of any institution funded or supported by the state.
According to the bill, an amendment to the penal code sponsored by Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi (Likud), a gathering of two or more people at which such flags are waved would be considered an unlawful assembly, with participants facing a year in prison and a minimum NIS 10,000 ($2,674) fine.
The law would apply to institutions such as universities, where protesters have at times waved Palestinian flags at demonstrations.
Vaturi has been critical of anti-government demonstrations in the past, stating this summer that protesters demanding early elections and the release of hostages held in Gaza were a “branch” of the Hamas terror group.
Vaturi later backtracked amidst widespread criticism, claiming in a tweet that his comments were “taken out of context.” The protests “harm our national resilience,” but “the horrible actions of the Hamas Nazis are not fit to be compared to any protest or political act,” he wrote.
Similar bills, promoted by members of the far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties, were advanced in the Knesset last year amid fierce opposition from university presidents, but were not voted into law.
