Yesterday, Wednesday, Israeli media announced that the new law banning the raising of Palestinian flags in universities has passed the preliminary reading in the Israeli Knesset.  

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation chose to grant coalition members freedom to vote as they decide when the bill comes up for a reading in the Knesset on Wednesday. 

According to the Israeli i24news website, 63 deputies supported it and 16 members opposed it. 

The website pointed out that it is remarkable that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett supported the proposal presented by the opposition, as did other members of the government coalition. 

See next: The Palestinian flag as a way of resistance

According to the Israeli Ynet website, representatives of the Yesh Atid party headed by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, with the exception of Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy, were absent from the vote. 

Ynet stated, that among other things, the draft law came against the backdrop of the Nakba Day demonstrations at "Ben-Gurion" and "Tel Aviv" universities, which resulted in an escalation after the flag was raised there extensively.

He added that the draft law prohibits the raising of the flags of "hostile countries", or the flags of the Palestinian Authority, "which is not defined as a state," in institutions that are funded by the occupation.

قناة كان العبرية:
رفع العلم الفلسطيني لأول مرة داخل حرم جامعة بن غوريون، خلال مظاهر لإحياء ذكرى #النكبة بموافقة إدارة الجامعة.#فلسطين pic.twitter.com/vQEptHthqh

— المقدسي للإعلام (@AlmakdesyMedia) May 23, 2022

Activists denounce the bill

Activists on social media denounced the Israeli decision, considering that this step confirms the failure of the occupation to obliterate the Palestinian identity. 

One activist highlighted in a tweet the racism of the Israeli occupation and its failure to obliterate the Palestinian identity after seven decades of occupying Palestine. Another stressed that the Israelis fear the flag because it reminds them that they are strangers on the land of Palestine.

تأكيدًا على عنصرية الاحتلال وفشله في طمس الهوية الفلسطينية بعد سبعة عقود من احتلال #فلسطين .
الكنيست الصهيوني يقر قانون تجريم رفع #العلم_الفلسطيني وبموجبه يتم اعتقال أي فلسطيني يحمل علم فلسطين داخل أي مؤسسة في الكيان.
كيان هش يخشى من الراية التي تذكرهم بأنهم غرباء عن أرض فلسطين. pic.twitter.com/9c7ZgQANdI

— ماجد الزبدة - فلسطين (@majed_zebda) June 1, 2022

Another activist said that "the most beautiful feeling is waving the Palestinian flag when it is prohibited," stressing that "if the Israelis dare to ban the raising of the Palestinian flag again... the flags will fly higher and higher." 

Palestinians continue to raise their flag without any fear, despite Israel's repeated attempts to take it down.🇵🇸🇵🇸
- Jerusalem, 29 May pic.twitter.com/tNdRtOI7yy

— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) May 31, 2022