A British-Israeli academic has described his shock after being detained by Israeli police for wearing a kippah embroidered with both an Israeli and a Palestinian flag, only to have the Palestinian symbol cut off while in custody.
Alex Sinclair, 53, said he was taken from a cafe near his home in Modiin on Monday, ordered to hand over his head covering, and locked in a cell. When the kippah was returned, the portion featuring the Palestinian flag had been removed. The incident has sparked widespread attention after Sinclair shared his experience on social media.
Police confirmed that a complaint has been filed with their internal investigations division but declined to provide further details.
Sinclair, who is also a novelist, was working on his laptop when a religious man confronted him, angrily claiming the kippah was illegal. Sinclair invited him to discuss the matter, but the man instead called the police. Officers arrived within minutes, told Sinclair his head covering was against the law, and confiscated it. He was taken to the police station, where he was forced to surrender his belongings, unable to make a phone call, and briefly locked in a cell.
After 20 minutes, Sinclair was told he could leave but without his kippah. When he insisted on its return, an officer handed it back with the Palestinian flag cut out. Sinclair called the incident "surreal."
"That photo of the ripped kippah — there's something so evocative about it," he said. "I think that's part of the reason this story has gone so crazy."
There is no explicit Israeli law banning public displays of the Palestinian flag. While courts have viewed it as protected expression, police are authorized to remove flags if they pose a "threat to public order" or are linked to a terrorist organization. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has instructed police to clamp down on Palestinian flags, a move rights groups say is illegal.
Sinclair, who has worn the dual-flag kippah for 20 years, described it as a symbol of "the messy ambivalence of my Jewish-Zionist identity." He said he chose the design to distinguish himself from right-wing religious nationalists. "When you walk around Israel and people see you in a kippah, they immediately associate you with certain political and religious groups who I don't want to be associated with," he said.
Sinclair, an observant Masorti Jew who grew up in north London, said he has often received positive reactions from Palestinian citizens of Israel. After this week's experience, he said he feels "anger and frustration as well as concern" about being on the police radar.
Yair Golan, leader of Israel's Democrats Party, criticized the police, writing on X: "This isn't just a story about a kippah that was crudely torn off by police. It's a story about the collapse of the Israeli police."
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where Sinclair lectures, sent a strongly worded letter to the police, condemning the "blatant violation of freedom of expression."
Sinclair has filed a complaint with the Department for Internal Police Investigations, citing unlawful detention and property damage, and is seeking compensation for his ruined kippah. He plans to order a new one with both flags, adding, "Some people are saying that maybe it'll start a trend."