Tel Aviv, Israel —
Israeli police said on Monday they detained a Jewish man wearing a kippah embroidered with Israeli and Palestinian flags and cut off his religious head covering. This is a rare incident that received national attention.
Alex Sinclair, 53, a writer and part-time lecturer at Hebrew University, told CNN that police approached him as he sat in a cafe in his hometown of Modi’in, about 35 kilometers southeast of Tel Aviv. He said he was taken to a local police station within minutes, searched and taken into custody.
In a detailed Facebook post, Sinclair wrote that while she was working on her computer, “a religious person came up to me with an angry face and shouted that my kippah was against the law.” Ms Sinclair said she tried to talk the man into conversation, but he wouldn’t listen and called police.
Two police officers soon arrived and told him the kipper was breaking the law and they were going to confiscate it, Sinclair said.
He was then taken to the local police station. “Unbuckle me. I faced the wall and pressed my hands against the wall. They threatened me. Then they locked me in a cell. No water, no phone, no idea what was going on or what the process would be,” he wrote about the experience.
Mr Sinclair said on Facebook that after being detained for about 20 minutes, officers initially agreed to release him without returning the kippah he had worn for 20 years. It was only after officers insisted that what was left be returned, he said.
“She had cut out the Palestinian flag,” he wrote, referring to the young female police officer in charge. “She took my property, my religious objects, things that were very dear to my heart and destroyed it.”
Mr. Sinclair’s case is perhaps unique. Israeli police have for years confiscated Palestinian flags from Palestinians and accused them of disturbing the peace. Palestinian flags are also sometimes displayed at ultra-Orthodox Jewish gatherings, where a section of the population opposes the modern state of Israel. However, it is extremely rare for police to take action against a Jewish man for wearing a kippah, even if Palestinian and Israeli flags are present.
Israeli law does not prohibit the display of the Palestinian flag in public, but Israeli authorities can restrict or remove it if they determine that it constitutes support for terrorist organizations or poses a real risk of public disorder. In 2023, Israel’s far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir ordered police officers to remove the Palestinian flag, but the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) claimed the order was illegal.
Israeli police acknowledged the incident in a statement, but made no mention of Sinclair’s claims that the flag or police had ruined the kippah. Police said they received a report of a man “wearing a kippah with a Palestinian flag” and that the man was detained but released “following explanation procedures”.
Sinclair told CNN on Thursday that the kippah has symbolic meaning for him as “a proud Jew and a proud Zionist who believes that Palestinians, like Jews, are a people with a right to self-determination and a legitimate historical connection to this part of the world.”
“There are people on both sides who seek to erase the identity of the other. Being a Zionist is consistent with recognizing the rights of others who also have legitimate ties to this country.”
“I don’t want to overreact to this, but it’s hard not to,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “I can’t help but say that this is the kind of thing a fascist regime would do. I can’t help but feel anxious and concerned, and frankly devastated, that this is the direction Israel is going.”
Mr Sinclair has filed a complaint with the Police Internal Investigation Bureau, charging him with unlawful detention and criminal damage to property. He is also seeking compensation for Kippa.
As an observant Jew, he told CNN that his Jewish identity is “very important.” But he said his kippah was distinct from right-wing religious nationalist groups and far-right politicians, whom he denounced as a “perversion of Judaism.”
He also vowed to wear a new kippah with both national flags flying as soon as possible.
