MKs advance bill tightening penalty for flag desecration

MKs on Wednesday approved a preliminary Knesset reading of a bill that would hand out harsher punishments for anyone desecrating the Israeli flag.

Under Israel’s existing Flag, Emblem and National Anthem Law from 1949, desecrating the flag could result in a one-year jail term.

The new bill will allow for imprisonment for up to three years, or a fine of up to NIS 50,000 ($13,000). Those convicted of the crime could also have a slew of rights revoked, including access to national health care and unemployment benefits and even higher education scholarships, Haaretz reported.

Nava Boker (Likud) proposed the bill in the shadow of a six-month wave of Palestinian violence against Israelis, in which 29 Israelis, four foreign nationals and some 190 Palestinians have been killed, with around two-thirds of Palestinians deaths occurring while attacking Israelis, according to the Israeli army.

The proposal was backed by 41 votes, while 30 MKs opposed it. Now the bill needs to be approved by the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee before being voted on again in the Knesset.

“We see demonstrations around the country where people are burning the flags of Israel and then immediately continuing their lives as if nothing happened,” said MK Boker.

“The bill seeks to stop this absurd situation,” continued MK Boker. “Burning the flag is an aggressive action that has an element of incitement against [Israeli] sovereignty.”

According to Haaretz, the explanatory blurb accompanying the bill states: “Following numerous cases of Israeli flags being burned during riots and disturbances that have taken place across Israel recently, it is proposed that any citizen of Israel who burns an Israeli flag, and in such an action testifies that they do not want to be a citizen of the country, will be stripped of the the various benefits provided by the state of Israel, for example: social security benefits, subsidies for medical treatment, and scholarships for higher education.”

Meretz MK Issawi Frej harshly criticized the proposal. “There is just one way to describe the current government: a rule of insecurity. In order to appease new Knesset members, they give them some candy,” he said.

Arguing that the bill would not decrease the amount of attacks, Frej added, “I’m against the burning of the state flag, but see for yourselves that a US court decided that it is permitted to burn the flag for the sake of freedom of expression. You are dealing with foolishness.”

Israeli artist Ariel Bronz is under investigation for allegedly inserting the national flag into his bottom as he performed at a Haaretz cultural conference in Tel Aviv earlier this month.