Israel’s Ben-Gvir bans Palestinian flag-flying in public

By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s new national ecurity minister has ordered police to ban Palestinian flags from public places in the latest crackdown by the country’s new hard-line government. Itamar Ben-Gvir’s order comes as Israel has taken other punitive steps against the Palestinians in return for their push for the U.N.’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation. On Sunday, Israel revoked the Palestinian foreign minister’s VIP travel permit. In east Jerusalem at Ben-Gvir’s behest, the police said they broke up a meeting by Palestinian parents about their children’s education, claiming it was unlawfully funded by the Palestinian Authority. Ben-Gvir is an ultranationalist with a long record of anti-Arab rhetoric and stunts who now oversees the police.