The Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Department (PID, which investigates allegations of police misconduct) is investigating after a man wearing a kippah with the Palestinian flag on it was detained by the Israel Police in Modi'in on Thursday, with officers telling him his kippah was against the law.
Dr. Alex Sinclair, a 53-year-old from Modi'in, wrote in a Facebook post that he was sitting at a café when a religious man began to shout at him that his kippah was "against the law."
"For the past twenty years, almost, I’ve worn a kippah that has both the Israeli flag and the Palestinian flag on it," Sinclair explained. "The reasons behind the kippah are long and complex and related to the messy ambivalence of my Jewish-Zionist identity... Anyway, I smiled at the man who was shouting at me, and I said, if you want to sit down with me and discuss politics, I’d be happy to, but it’s not against the law."
The man persisted, however, and soon two police officers arrived at the scene. They agreed that Sinclair's kippah was against the law, and told him that they were going to confiscate it.
According to Sinclair, he tried to explain that his kippah was not illegal, but the officer in charge told him that he was being detained.
The police confiscated his laptop, his phone, and everything else in his pockets, without allowing him to make any calls. They then brought him to the police station, where he was locked in a cell.
"Apparently, I was not actually arrested," Sinclair said. "There’s a difference between being detained and being arrested, but that distinction doesn’t mean a hell of a lot when you’re sitting in a cell on your own without being allowed to speak to your wife or a lawyer."
Sinclair remained in the cell for around twenty minutes before being released, but the police informed him that his kippah had been confiscated and threatened to put him back in the cell if he didn't leave without it. When Sinclair continued to demand that his property be returned, the police relented and gave it to him - after cutting out the Palestinian flag.
"She’d taken my possession, a religious ritual object, something that is very dear to my heart, and destroyed it," Sinclair wrote.
Democrats MK says incident highlights 'systemic breakdown' in police
"If police in any other country in the world were to cut a Jew's kippah, there would be a holy uproar here," Democrats MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv said in response to the event.
"This is a systemic breakdown taking place in the Israel Police. Officers and commanders have completely lost their professional ethos, their service to the citizens, and their loyalty to the law. The conduct of the police justifies opening a criminal investigation and a civil lawsuit, and we intend to follow the matter closely."
Activist group Tag Meir also reacted to Sinclair's detention and the destruction of his kippah, saying that it violated freedom of expression.
"A country in which people are arrested for expressing an opinion, and where Jews' kippahs are vandalized and desecrated for any reason, is run by a government and police force which has lost its direction," the organization stated.
The Israel Police, in a statement issued after Sinclair's story was publicized, said that he had not been interrogated or arrested and that they could not elaborate on the story's details due to a complaint filed with the PID.