Netanyahu blasts minister for calling nationalist Jerusalem march a ‘provocation’

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu hits out at Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg for criticizing today’s nationalist Flag March for Jerusalem Day as a “provocation.”

“Within the current government, there are those who think that the flags of Israel should not be hoisted here, in the heart of Jerusalem. A minister in the government says that the parade of Israeli flags in Jerusalem is a provocation,” Netanyahu says at Jerusalem’s City Hall while announcing the launch of the Knesset’s “Jerusalem Lobby.”

Netanyahu compares recent incidents in which Palestinian national and political flags were waved across Israeli cities to today’s nationalist flag march.

“Do you understand? Waving Palestinian Liberation Organization flags in Jerusalem, Lod, Tel Aviv, Beersheba – it is not a provocation. Burning the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount — it is not a provocation. But waving blue and white flags in the heart of Jerusalem is a provocation,” Netanyahu adds.

Public display of the Palestinian flag is legal under Israeli law, though police have at times prohibited this.