Israel bans Palestinian flags and artist protests by drawing himself with it

A little over a decade ago, the Palestinian flag hung alongside the Israeli and American flags at the Israeli Prime Minister’s residence, when Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas shared a historic handshake.

Today, Netanyahu is back in power and Abbas never left, but many other things have changed, including Israel’s attitude towards the Palestinian flag.

This month, Israel’s new national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, ordered police to remove Palestinian flags from any public place in Israel, claiming they are a symbol of mobilization for terrorists. And one artist felt compelled to respond to Ben Gvir’s edict.

As soon as he learned of the minister’s order, Tel Aviv visual artist Michael Rozanov painted himself in the colors of the Palestinian flag and made the artwork his profile picture on Facebook.

“It’s ridiculous, you want to knock down flags? And if I were a flag, what would you do? Would you take me out because I’m wearing certain colors?” said Rozanov, known as Mysh. “So I drew this illustration which took me 10 minutes.”

He didn’t expect to attract much attention, but dozens of Israelis joined Mysh, asking him to draw their profile pictures with the Palestinian flag in hopes of making an impact.

“And then I thought, yeah, it would be nice to offer other people to participate. Because I like to draw and I like to start something online,” Mysh told CNN .

He also drew Ben Gvir dressed in the colors of the Palestinian flag, right down to the kippa, the headdress worn by religious Jews.

Mysh is far from the only Israeli unhappy with Netanyahu’s new government. The prime minister’s right-wing coalition won a narrow majority of the popular vote in November’s election, but critics and opponents have opposed a wide range of its measures, including a ban on the Palestinian flag, greater deference to the ultra-Orthodox and plans to change the court system.

More than 100,000 people turned out in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, the latest – and biggest – in a series of weekly protests against legal reforms that Netanyahu’s allies are planning.

But not all Israelis welcomed Mysh’s drawings. One Facebook user accused him of “spreading a hate flag”, adding: “What a bummer”.

Another said: “What does that mean? That it is now legal to belong to a nation that has surrendered to its terrorist leaders? Does Hamas not want peace with us, which is not clear?”

Mysh made a point of replying to every comment to explain and even try to convince his critics. But he believes that Ben Gvir’s attempt to publicly ban the Palestinian flag, which is technically legal to fly in Israel, is a continuation of the direction Israel has been in since its founding in 1948.

“It’s definitely a step up from the madness, but nothing surprising,” Mysh said. “I think what we see now is the destruction of this illusion that most Israelis try to maintain, that they can live in a liberal democracy that respects all human rights, while at the same time robbing over five million people of those rights. basic rights,” he said, referring to the Palestinian population.

An artist who uses different media – film and animation, illustration and comics – to address social and political issues, as well as sexuality and gender, Mysh came to Israel from Latvia as a teenager in 1993 and served in the army for three years.

But one day, doing his reserve duty at an Israeli checkpoint in the Jordan Valley, he says he had a powerful insight into the Palestinian experience.

“The only reason the checkpoint existed was to make life more difficult for people in the village,” Mysh said. “We were checking the same people twice a day. It was mainly mothers who take their children to the kindergarten on the other side of the village.”

“There was one day when I was standing with my gun and another soldier was checking ID cards and I suddenly realized that I am a grown man who points a gun at a 3-year-old. And I say to myself, ‘I’m not really aiming for him. I’m just standing here’. Yes, but he doesn’t know it. What he sees is this creepy creature pointing a f***ing gun.”

“Suddenly the perspective on the other side occurred to me, which is this child who twice a day sees this monster pointing a gun at her. What are the chances of this child growing up ready to see me as a human being as I am? How can I expect him to perceive me as a human being? So I decided I’m out. I’m not going to do that anymore,” Mysh said.

Mysh sees a direct connection between Israel’s military checkpoints and Ben Gvir’s attempt to essentially ban the Palestinian flag, which will likely be tested in court.

“Every oppressive system is a weak system because it cannot withstand any friction,” Mysh argued. “You have to apply an enormous amount of violence to avoid friction.”

That’s what Ben Gvir is trying to achieve, Mysh said: “It’s an idea that in order to achieve our national identity, we need to take it from other people.”