Modi’in police investigated after cutting off Palestinian flag from kippah of detainee

A rights group said the detention and the alteration of his kippah violated freedom of expression.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Officers in Modi’in, Israel, are under investigation for alleged misconduct after reportedly cutting a Palestinian flag design off a man’s kippah during an encounter that led to his detention, according to the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Department.

The case involves Dr. Alex Sinclair, a 53-year-old from Modi’in, who said in a Facebook post that the incident began while he was sitting at a café when another man confronted him over his head covering.

“For the past twenty years, almost, I’ve worn a kippah that has both the Israeli flag and the Palestinian flag on it,” Sinclair wrote. “The reasons behind the kippah are long and complex and related to the messy ambivalence of my Jewish-Zionist identity… Anyway, I smiled at the man who was shouting at me, and I said, if you want to sit down with me and discuss politics, I’d be happy to, but it’s not against the law.”

According to Sinclair, two police officers arrived after the man began shouting at him.

He said the officers told him the kippah was illegal and that they would confiscate it. As the exchange continued, the officers informed him he would be detained.

Sinclair said he was placed in a cell and later told his kippah would not be returned.

He said that after he insisted on getting it back, it was returned with the Palestinian flag removed.

“She’d taken my possession, a religious ritual object, something that is very dear to my heart, and destroyed it,” Sinclair wrote.

The Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Department is reviewing the conduct of the officers involved.

Activist group Tag Meir responded to the incident, saying Sinclair’s detention and the alteration of his kippah violated freedom of expression.