Rally raises red f lags for Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could not have asked for anything more. The Palestinian flags being waved in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square at the weekend, from his point of view, said it all. Only a small minority of the estimated 20,000 at the demonstration raised the Palestinian colours – but they knew that they would get all the attention. Similarly, while most slogans were calls for equality or against the government, it was the mantra ‘‘With blood and spirit, we’ll free Palestine’’ that naturally echoed loudest.

It was hard not to compare this demonstration with the rally the previous Saturday night arranged primarily by the Druze community. There, Israeli flags flew proudly alongside the Druze colours and the event ended with the national anthem, ‘‘Hatikvah.’’ Both demonstrations show the very real feelings of discrimination or of being marginalised that the Nation-State Law evokes, particularly the determination of Hebrew as the official state language while Arabic was granted a ‘‘special status.’’ But there was a fundamental difference.

The calls at the weekend were not to amend the Nation-State Law or to cancel it and turn the Declaration of Independence into law instead. The slogans were negating Israel’s very existence as the Jewish state. The red, green, black and white flags waved were all red flags for the Jewish state.