The moronic High Court of Justice permitted ultra-left demonstrators in Tel Aviv to wave PLO flags at an anti-IDF rally. Police initially demanded the absence of Palestinian flags, pretending shamefully that they might cause confrontations with right-wingers—as if waving enemy flags during war is not a crime in itself.
The decision was too much even for leftists, and left-wing attorney Guy Ofir is organizing a counter-demonstration under Israeli flags. Police may eventually ban both rallies on the grounds of public security.
Technically, the court’s decision is perfectly correct: there are no legal grounds to ban PLO flags if Israel is fighting Hamas. But why did the Supreme Court take the case in first place? Instead as acting as the court of last resort, the Israeli Supreme Court routinely takes legally mundane but politically charged cases. The PLO flag case should have gone to a Tel Aviv court, perhaps winding up in the Supreme Court a couple of years after the demonstration. The judges’ willingness to expedite ultra-left cases stands in contrast to their feet-dragging in pro-Jewish cases. More than that, the judges went so far as to press the police to permit PLO flags without the court order or even a proper hearing, which they hadn’t enough time to stage.
The Supreme Court is anything but consistent: in Marzel’s Umm al Fahm march case, the court permitted only Israeli flags in an Israeli (Arab) town. In the PLO flag case, the same court permitted even the enemy flags to be waved by Israeli (Arab) citizens.
PLO flag is really extreme. I just can’t understand how it was allowed! PLO flag is a symbol of Palestine in Israel. Something strange it is.
It is impossible to understand Israeli court and authorities: on the one hand, they allow easily to hold a demonstartion with PLO flags while on the other they speak about Ashkenazi discrimination. Where’s their logic if they can’t make heads or tails of their own country?