Right Wing NGO Shocks With Palestinian Flag Stunt

The right-wing NGO Regavim took responsibility for hanging Palestinian flags along highways in Yehudah and Shomron overnight to dramatize their claim that terrorists are threatening to take over the region.

Regavim responded to expressions of shock from Jewish residents with a statement explaining that their intention was to “to shock, alert, and illustrate what will happen if illegal Arab construction is allowed to continue unhindered and a de facto Palestinian state is established as per the Fayyad Plan of 2009,” referring to then-Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad.

Commuters who saw the flags as they rode by on Sunday morning complained to Israeli authorities.

“We understand the harsh reactions of the residents of Judea and Samaria who saw the flags this morning, but we also understand that there is a terrorist state taking shape right around the corner,” said Regavim director Meir Deutsch, according to the Times of Israel on Sunday.

“The population of Judea and Samaria has been lulled into a dangerous slumber,” he said. “The flags that we put up this morning won’t change the future of Judea and Samaria, but the tens of thousands of structures that were built over the past decade and the thousands of dunams that the PA has taken over with the assistance of European countries will determine the future of Area C.”

Area C, which comprises about 60 percent of Yehudah and Shomron, is where most of the Jewish residents live. The Oslo Accords granted Israel full military and administrative control over the area.

Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who co-founded Regavim in 2006, endorsed the act: “The time has come for all of us to wake up and thwart the Arab takeover of our homeland. These flags are not dangerous, but the thousands of houses, roads, and trees that the Arabs are building, and paving, and planting under our noses are! The responsibility falls on the shoulders of one man — Netanyahu.”

Also on Sunday, Smotrich visited Shilo area on Sunday afternoon to survey Arab construction near the Amichai community.

“I discovered heavy construction is underway to establish a Palestinian town, which is absolutely forbidden to be built in the Shilo area – it would cut off the connection to the Jordan Valley,” Smotrich said. “We ignore too much Palestinian construction and it must stop here.”

“I call on the prime minister to order an immediate halt to this construction and hope that this will be the first step for the de facto imposition of sovereignty in Yehudah and Shomron,” he added.