Alex Sinclair, a British-born writer and educator, was sitting in a café in central Israel minding his own business. Except that his own business bothered the police.
You see, Mr. Sinclair was sporting a yarmulka that had the Israeli flag on one side and the Palestinian flag on the other. The police found this highly offensive, as they should, and ordered him to remove the yarmulka as the claim was it is illegal to post a Palestinian flag anywhere.
Mr. Sinclair refused to remove it, so he was hauled off to a holding station. He finally had his yarmulka returned - with the Palestinian flag cut out. Sinclair was sure to publicize the incident on Facebook.
This caused an immediate outburst from the left, including CNN and the BBC, who naturally clamor to portray Israel as a police state. Democratic MKs and Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv attended a rally outside the Modi’in police station. Kariv stated: “If police officers had cut off a Jew’s kippah anywhere else in the world, there would have been an uproar here in Israel.”
There might be some truth to that statement: On the other hand, had the police cut off a yarmulka exhibiting a Palestinian flag, I don’t think there would be such an uproar.
Some blame the National Security Minister for this type of behavior. Itamar Ben-Gvir, soon after his appointment as Security Minister, told police officers to exercise wide latitude in removing Palestinian national flags from public spaces to preserve public order. It is doubtful that this yarmulka, despicable as it is, would have upset public order.
Sinclair told the JTA: “I am a Zionist and I believe in the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in this part of their historic homeland.” He added: “And I also think that the Palestinians are also people who have a right to self-determination in part of this place, which is also their historic homeland.”
So Mr. Sinclair is one confused Zionist. It is doubtful that the Palestinians as a people ever had a legitimate claim for Israel to be their historic homeland. They were nomadic people who lived under one occupation or another. And it is hopeless to dream that Israel will make peace with the Palestinians as part of a two-state solution. The failure of the Oslo Accords and October 7 made that eminently clear. And most Israelis now recognize that.
That being said, I don’t think that tearing up one’s yarmulka is the way to go. It’s too draconian a measure. While I certainly sympathize with the police, I think they overreached with this move.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
