Ramallah, January 10 (QNA) - Amnesty International said that the decision of the Minister of National Security in the Israeli occupation government to ban raising Palestinian flag in the lands of 1948 is a cowardly and expected attempt to obliterate the identity of a Palestinian people and blatant violation the United Nations charters and human rights.

Amnesty called on Israeli authorities to retract their instructions, warning that these instructions considered as a clear violation of Articles 2, 7,19 and 20 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN charters, which is the cornerstone of international law.

Spokesperson for Amnesty International, Rami Haidar said that the instructions to ban raising Palestinian flag and the cancelation of professional and legal standards fall within the scope of racist mass punishment.

Haidar expressed deep regret about this, saying: "We previously expected such cowardly steps to obliterate the identity of the Palestinian people, starting with an attempt to obliterate their national symbols and prevent them from expressing their national identity, but we are confident that they will fail, just as dozens of similar attempts have failed for more than 7 decades." According to a survey conducted by the organization, incitement against the Palestinian flag by Israeli politicians and organizations over the past years has been highly successful in instilling fear in the hearts of most Jews upon seeing it.

The survey confirmed that more than 80% of those who wave the Palestinian flag intend to express their national identity, or protest against the Israeli policy of racial discrimination.

(QNA)