A strange and bizarre populist bill was submitted to the government this week, and its purpose seems to be to get attention.
This is a proposal that prohibits flying the Palestinian flag, the Palestinian Authority flag, within the walls of academic institutions in Israel. In practice, these are mainly universities and public academic institutions, because in private institutions the hoisting does not take place anyway.
The goal is clear and well known: to remove the Arab students, and a few of the politically active Jewish students on the campuses of Haifa, Tel Aviv, Hebrew and Ben-Gurion universities.
This bill is not only unconstitutional, it is also unimplementable, and it is highly doubtful whether such a law will be enacted or whether the court will allow it to be implemented. Even if the members of the coalition, members of the full-fledged right-wing government, agree to this bill and want to enact it, it is worth understanding its international implications.
For this purpose, we must go back 30 years and cancel the Oslo Accords, since the law will contradict them fundamentally. The basis of the Oslo Accords is Israel's recognition of the PLO – the Palestine Liberation Organization. From the moment Israel signed the Oslo Accords, which it never annulled, it effectively recognized the organization as a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and all its symbols, including the flag. If Israel enacts the ban on waving it, it will naturally revoke its recognition, and in effect return to the days when it considered the PLO a hostile organization.
Then many Israeli leaders, prime ministers and ministers will have to explain why they met representatives of the Palestinian Authority and why they agreed to fly the flag at the Prime Minister's Office, the Kirya in Tel Aviv and other official institutions. Some also shook hands with the organization's founder, the late Yasser Arafat.
After that, official Israel will have to announce the abolition of the Palestinian Authority, a political body that was serialized autonomy from the late 70s to the mid-90s. The Palestinian Authority is the result of a political process in which several countries participated, which led to mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO. Israel will have to cancel the security coordination agreements, which those who know know the magnitude of their contribution to Israel's security.
Only after completing this process will it be possible to appeal to the Knesset and forbid by law the flying of the Palestinian flag as a symbol of a hostile state or organization. It is clear that the bill is intended mainly to receive some headlines and will not be promoted, mainly for legal, constitutional and political reasons. It is hard to believe that the Israeli government's legal counsel, who opposes this bill, opposes it on ideological grounds.
In any case, the Arab party cells in Israeli universities will continue to fly the flag even if such a law is enacted, because the heads of the universities – some of whom have already expressed opposition to this bill – will not rush to enforce it and will not expel students who wave the flag. In part because if they do so, they risk a global academic boycott. In addition, the move will portray Israel as an anti-democratic state.
Whoever wants to prevent the Arabs from waving the Palestinian flag should do his homework first and not rush to submit bills that will be buried in a government in which he is a dominant partner.
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