Israeli Police Detain British-Israeli Academic, Cut Palestinian Flag from His Kippah

Reflecto News | Middle East | Civil Liberties & Human Rights

MODI‘IN, Israel — In an incident that has drawn international condemnation, Israeli police detained a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for wearing a traditional kippah that featured both the Israeli and Palestinian flags—then returned the head covering with the Palestinian flag cut out .

Alex Sinclair, 53, a British-Israeli academic who has lived in Israel since 1997, was sitting at a café in the central Israeli city of Modi‘in on April 23, 2026, when a religious man approached him, shouting that his kippah was “against the law” . When Sinclair refused to remove it, the man called police .

The Detention

Sinclair described the encounter in a viral Facebook post: “Five minutes later, the police arrive. Two officers, and they immediately tell me that my kippah is against the law and that they are going to confiscate it” .

He was taken to a police station, frisked, placed in a cell for approximately 20 minutes, and his personal belongings—including his laptop and phone—were confiscated without being allowed to contact his wife or a lawyer .

During the detention, Sinclair said officers told him: “You’re not under arrest, you’re being detained. There’s a difference, 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” .

The Mutilated Kippah

Upon his release, police informed Sinclair that his kippah had been confiscated and threatened to put him back in the cell if he didn‘t leave without it . After he insisted on its return, an officer handed it back—with the section bearing the Palestinian flag crudely cut out .

“She’d taken my possession, a religious ritual object, something that is very dear to my heart, and destroyed it,” Sinclair wrote .

Legal Context: What the Law Actually Says

While there is no explicit Israeli law banning public displays of the Palestinian flag, Israeli courts have viewed it as a protected form of expression . However, authorities have wide latitude to remove or confiscate Palestinian flags if they are deemed “a threat to public order” or constitute “identification with a terrorist organization” .

The crackdown intensified after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—a far-right politician—took office in 2023 and ordered police to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces, characterizing the flag as a “terrorist symbol” . Human rights groups have called this policy illegal .

Police acknowledged the incident but said no further details could be provided as the matter has been referred to the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department (DIPI) .

Sinclair’s Message

Sinclair, an observant Masorti (Conservative) Jew and the author of Loving the Real Israel: An Educational Agenda for Liberal Zionism, said he first ordered the custom-made kippah nearly 20 years ago because he wanted to express “the messy ambivalence of my Jewish-Zionist identity” .

He said the arresting officers told him the kippah constituted “incitement” .

“I’m doing all of this as a Zionist, as somebody who chooses to live here, as somebody who believes in the right of Israel to exist and to flourish in security, along with the Palestinians having those same rights as well,” he told the BBC .

He also clarified his stance toward Hamas: “Hamas is my enemy. Palestinian terrorism is my enemy. … The desire for a two-state solution is not a simplistic, ‘let‘s sit down and say kumbaya.’ It‘s a statement that there are two peoples in this part of the world and they both have a right to self-determination” .

Reactions

Opposition politicians and human rights groups condemned the police action.

Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi and MK from the Democrats party, said: “If police officers had cut off a Jew’s kippah in any other country in the world, there would have been an uproar here in Israel” .

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) called the incident “sheer madness and absurdity, and a serious violation of autonomy, freedom of expression, liberty, freedom of religion, and dignity” .

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where Sinclair is an adjunct lecturer, issued a strongly worded letter to police, saying it “is troubled by the blatant violation of freedom of expression in the public sphere” .

What’s Next

Sinclair has filed a formal complaint with DIPI, alleging unlawful detention and damage to property . He is seeking compensation for his destroyed kippah—and has said he plans to order a new one with both flags .

Key Takeaways

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