Middle East Monitor / August 3, 2022
A new survey conducted by Amnesty International has revealed that most Israelis fear the sight of the Palestine flag, Quds Press has reported. According to Amnesty’s Program Director, Yariv Mohar, though, there would have been no chance to ask a question about the Palestine flag and get a “simple answer”.
The survey conducted by the rights group showed that half of the Palestinians in Israel believe that raising the flag of Palestine is part of their national identity. Indeed, 35 per cent of respondents said that raising the flag is a protest against discrimination in the occupation state.
Predictably, 52 per cent of Jews in Israel believe that raising the Palestinian flag symbolizes that there is no recognition of Israel, while 14.5 per cent believe that it symbolizes support for resistance against the state.
Conversely, the survey found that 95.3 per cent of Israeli Jews believe that raising the flag of Israel is an expression of their national identity; 55.6 per cent of the Palestinians think the same about Israeli Jews who raise the national flag. Just over 30 per cent of the Palestinian respondents believe that raising Israel’s flag means ignoring the state of Palestine and its right to exist, with 45 per cent linking Israel’s flag to “negative merits and intentions”.
While 72.3 per cent of Israeli Jews see the Palestine flag as a threat to Jews, only 18.5 per cent of Palestinians in Israel believe that raising the Palestine flag is a threat to Israeli Jews.
