Palestinian flags, Stalin and other disturbing images from anti-annexation protest

Lord writes that the message of the protesters was that “all is permitted.”

By David Isaac, World Israel News

The Palestinian flag. Stalin’s image. The Communist Hammer and Sickle. These symbols caused consternation among Israelis the morning after thousands attended a anti-annexation rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on the evening of June 6.

Amnon Lord, an opinion writer for Israel Hayom, writes on Sunday, “How is it possible to demonstrate for peace and democracy under a flag of terror and dictatorship?”

He notes that out of “the same violent totalitarian attitude that has turned into fashion, it was possible to see one demonstrator wearing a picture of Stalin on his shirt, instead of Che Guevera, as is commonplace.”

“Next to him waved signs with the hammer and sickle,” Lord writes, calling it “the red swastika.”

The images contradicted others at the demonstration, such as “We won’t give in on democracy.”

Amit Segal of Channel 12 pointed out the mixed and contradictory messages at the rally.

“The demonstration in the square yesterday contained a series of spectacular internal contradictions: A call for two states – but almost only PLO flags; opposition to sovereignty – but signs saying ‘We can’t breath since 1948’; a call to serve the Israeli interests and the Jewish majority – but with a tone set by the [Arab] Joint List, which is interested in a state of all its citizens,” Segal writes on Sunday.

Likud politicians reacted strongly against the rally. Knesset Member Dudi Amselem said, “Our only Zionist answer to people that wave the PLO flag in the center of Tel Aviv – applying Israeli sovereignty on parts of the homeland.”

Fellow Likud MK Shlomo Karai said, “There is here a Fifth Column that wishes for the riots in the U.S. to arrive here. It’s not surprising that many of them are found at a demonstration in Tel Aviv that appears like a Gaza demonstration and not like concerned Israelis.”

Among the signs held at the rally were “Palestinian Lives Matter,” attempting to draw a parallel between Palestinians and the current Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the U.S.

The demonstration was organized by 33 different groups. Joint List Chairman and MK Ayman Odeh spoke in a recorded message at the protest. “We can stop the annexation but we have to struggle against it together – Arabs and Jews that demand peace, equality, democracy and social justice,” he said.

Odeh, along with four other Joint List members, were asked to self-quarantine after one of them tested positive for coronavirus.

Lord writes that the message of the protesters was that “all is permitted,” given that they consider the government illegitimate and so have a right to violate its rules.

“One who waves the flags of the enemy expresses contempt towards the citizens of Israel,” he writes.