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Israel is my Avatar

I think a lot of news24 users assume my avatar is provocation. They are of course, completely wrong, and the fact that an Israeli flag is considered provocation is a question for the user's own personal reflection.

If you drive through Sea Point, Cape Town, on Sundays you will see a small army of muslims driving around hooting with Palestinian flags fluttering out the car windows. Where I live, no-one hesitates to show off a Palestinian flag.

At traffic lights on my way to work, and over bridges on the M5, Palestinian flags are gleefully waved around in blissful freedom. The people waving them are outwardly gleeful; smiles on their faces and jovial of body language.

I attended a pro-Israel 'rally' a few weeks ago. I say rally when really it was just a meeting; the police would not allow the peaceful crowd (most families with children running around and people handing out food etc) to march because they could not guarantee their protection. We had anti-Israeli crowds watching nearby, itching for the chance to confront us. Police had a hard job keeping them at bay. Israeli flags fluttered in the air, but it was a rare sight.

A friend of mine who lives in Sea Point was making his way to the rally, with his Israeli flag. He was attacked, assaulted and his flag burnt. He had to go to hospital for treatment and missed the rally.

I would be apprehensive to wave an Israeli flag around out of the confines of police control; I have no doubt that I would be heckled and/or attacked for showing my support for Israel. I am not free to take an Israeli flag out in public because I will be assaulted for doing so.

Those gleeful people who wave their Palestinian flags around so heartily are the very same people who deny me my freedom in my own country, and I think it's disgusting. Regardless of who is right or wrong in this whole saga, the fact that I cannot express myself is unconstitutional and a denial of my rights as a citizen of South Africa.

My avatar is my way of expressing my freedom, and I don't apologise if you perceive it as provocation. Those issues are yours alone.
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