The British Home Secretary, Suella Bravemanhas issued orders to local police to consider as “criminal offense” the act of waving a palestinian flag.
“Context is crucial,” Braverman warned in the letter addressed to police chiefs. “Conduct that is legitimate in some circumstances, such as waving a Palestinian flag, may not be legitimate when it comes to glorifying acts of terrorism.”
Braverman has urged the Police to have “the same consideration in the presence of swastikas in anti-Israel demonstrations” and to act without contemplations before songs like “From the river to sea, Palestine will be free“(“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”) for estimating that it can be understood as “the expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world.”
The Home Secretary, known for her anti-immigration rhetoric, has been directly criticized by Shami Chakrabarti, a member of the House of Lords and a lawyer specializing in human rights: “Police chiefs know their powers and their duties, and “The politicization of their work in these dangerous times does nothing to make vulnerable communities safer.”
Braverman’s letter has reached public opinion after the demonstration held this Monday in front of the Israeli embassy in which dozens of protesters waved Palestinian flags. The Secretary of the Interior expressed her concern about several videos that appeared on social networks in which cars can be seen waving Palestinian symbols in neighborhoods with a Jewish population in London and other cities.