Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

There’s nothing radical about flying the Palestine flag

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator flashes the V sign outside parliament (Getty)

I have a confession to make: when those Maccabi Tel Aviv fans tore down a Palestine flag in Amsterdam a few weeks back, I let out a little cheer. Yes, I know the boisterous lads did other things in the Dutch capital that were definitely bad. The left never tires of telling us what thugs and brutes these young Israelis allegedly are. But that one act, that tiny revolt against the omnipresence of the Palestine colours in the cities of Europe – that I welcomed.

If you want to be radical, wave the Israel flag

For two reasons. First, because it made perfect sense to me that Israelis might feel vexed and possibly even distressed by the sight of this flag flapping from the balcony of every smug residence in the capitals of this continent.

After all, this was the flag under which hundreds of their fellow citizens were raped, tortured and murdered just a year ago.

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