Should wearing or holding the flag of Israel be treated as a Public Order offence?
The Israeli flag is the national symbol of Israel, a country with which the UK maintains diplomatic relations. UK law under the Public Order Act 1986 and Terrorism Act 2000 does not criminalise displaying it on its own; prosecution requires evidence of intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress, or support for a proscribed organisation. Recent protests over the Israel-Gaza conflict have seen incidents where Israeli flags prompted police intervention for potential breaches of the peace when displayed confrontationally, but the flag itself remains lawful to hold or wear in most settings.
26 Opinions
No flag should be banned ,however each nations flag should be the only one flying on public buildings. Union flag as a secondary flag.
No - no national flag is banned, as far as I know the only flags that would be an offence to display would be flags of organisations like ISIS, to single out the Israeli flag would be crazy
If it's unacceptable to wave a Palestine flag it's unacceptable to wave an Israel one. Plus all those people enthusing over union flags & saying the only flag that should be flown is a union flag - seem to have no problem waving an Israel flag but big issues with others. Why on earth would you want to wave a genocide flag? You wouldn't wave a swastika would you?
If holding a piece of cardboard in support of Palestine can be terrorism, then waving an Israeli flag can certainly be a public order offence in some situations.
But the Union Jack should also not be banned or removed from lamp posts.
Why ban Israel flags when so many other anti UK flags are flown without two tier police intervention at so many of the other marches? Do you ban them all? That really would stretch our prison capacity
Silly question. We would have to ban every foreign flag or none. Banning the flags of sovereign nations is ridiculous. Banning the flag of only one country is racist.
If you give the police the power to criminalise a piece of cloth because it 'causes tension' or 'provokes', that exact same authoritarian weapon will be turned on Palestinian flags, trade union banners, and climate marches tomorrow, guaranteed.
Israel as a country has done many wrong things of late, but that should not influence how people feel towards ordinary Israeli people and their right to display the symbol of their country, their flag. The same can be said for Palestine and their people and flag.
Brain dead question