Benjamin Netanyahu's War at Home

A novelist in Modi'in wore a kippah embroidered with both Israeli and Palestinian flags. A religious man accused him of violating the law and called police. Officers declared the kippah illegal, threatened detention, and removed the kippah along with his laptop, phone, and pocket contents. He was taken to a police station and held in a cell, though he was not arrested. Displaying the Palestinian flag is protected speech under a 2003 Supreme Court ruling, with an exception for cases involving substantial, deep, and severe injury, such as flag-waving in front of victims of terrorist activities. The national-security minister had urged police to remove flags from public places by citing incitement risk.

"In fact, displaying the Palestinian flag is protected speech in Israel, affirmed by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision in 2003. The Court, however, also ruled that an exception might be made in cases of "substantial, deep and severe injury," such as waving the flag in front of victims of "terrorist activities." Sinclair knew that Itamar Ben-Gvir, the extremist national-security minister, had exploited that exception, urging the police to remove the flag from public places, citing a danger of "incitement.""

"As he worked, he wrote, "a religious man came over to me with an angry face and shouted at me that my kippah is against the law." Sinclair denied that it was and invited the man to sit down and talk. Not appeased, the man called the police. Five minutes later, two officers appeared, and one-a policewoman who, Sinclair said, looked about his kids' age-declared the kippah illegal and said that he would be "detained.""

"Still, he surrendered his kippah when the officers demanded it. They also took his laptop, his phone, and the contents of his pockets, and then drove him to a police station, he said, where he was locked in a cell. But Sinclair was not arrested, and after twenty minutes his belongings,"

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