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Israeli police officers confiscated a Hungarian flag from an anti-government demonstrator at a protest in northern Israel last Saturday, telling the man the tricolor could cause "provocation" because it resembled the Palestinian flag, Haaretz reported.
The confiscation occurred at the weekly demonstration at Karkur Junction, north of Tel Aviv, where anti-government protests have been held regularly.
A police officer approached the man as he waved the Hungarian flag and demanded he surrender it. When the protester explained what the flag was, the officer was unmoved.
"When I explained to him that it was the Hungarian flag, he said, 'You might understand that, but others don't,'" the protester told Haaretz. He offered to return the flag to his car, but the officer refused and held it until the demonstration ended.
Both Hungary and the Palestinian Authority use flags featuring red, white, and green, though their designs differ markedly. Hungary's horizontal tricolor contains no black, while the Palestinian flag features a black triangle on its hoist. Displaying a Palestinian flag is not illegal in Israel.
The Karkur incident is not isolated. The week before, at the same junction, an officer confiscated and destroyed a sign reading "Two states for two peoples, Israel and Palestine," detained the protester who carried it, handcuffed him, and cited "incitement."
According to demonstrators present, the same officer subsequently handcuffed three additional protesters and was overheard telling colleagues, "I filled my quota for the evening."
When the detained protester told the officer his role was to maintain order, not arrest demonstrators, the officer allegedly threatened to break his bones if he did not stay quiet.
The detained man's wife, Ofrit Arnon, told Haaretz her husband sat handcuffed in a police vehicle for more than an hour. He was eventually driven toward a police station before being released at an intersection roughly a kilometer from the protest site, after the officer spoke with a superior by phone.
Because the demonstration had already ended, the man, who has a visual impairment, made his own way home by public transport. "He was very upset and hurt, because we are law-abiding citizens," Arnon said. "He finally understood that the police do not work for the citizens, but for whoever is trying to take control of them."
Following the sign seizure and arrest, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel wrote to the acting police legal adviser, the commander of the coastal district, and the head of the police internal affairs unit, demanding that officers be reminded of applicable laws and procedures. The Association noted that police's own internal directives prohibit officers from intervening in the content of protests.
Israel's police legal counsel established in 2024 that officers are barred from confiscating signs at demonstrations, including signs carrying critical or provocative messages, a ruling issued in response to a petition to the Supreme Court. In practice, Haaretz reported, officers across the country have repeatedly acted contrary to that directive.
Protest activists at Karkur Junction also allege that police treat pro-government counter-demonstrators differently. One activist recounted that a government supporter arrived at a recent protest and shouted, "You traitors, they should kill all of you, too bad they didn't murder you on October 7."
When she asked the officer who had just arrested a protester why he was permitting that provocation, he ordered the counter-demonstrator to step back, but took no further action. "I said fine," she recalled, "but you put our protester in the police van."
Israeli police did not respond to Haaretz's inquiries about either the flag confiscation or the sign seizure and arrest. The force said the civil rights group's letter "will receive a response through the relevant authorities."
The Karkur incidents unfolded against a backdrop of nationwide demonstrations. On Saturday, thousands gathered at Tel Aviv's Habima Square and in cities including Jerusalem and Haifa, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the formation of an official state commission of inquiry into the failures that preceded the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack. The protests were organized by the Movement for Quality Government and other civil society organizations.
Netanyahu has refused to establish such a commission, arguing it would be biased against him. In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces genocide proceedings at the International Court of Justice.
Days before the Hungarian flag incident, police in the central city of Modi'in detained a resident for wearing a kippa displaying both an Israeli and a Palestinian flag, and later cut the religious head covering to remove the symbol.
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