I’ve been reading scattered reports of schools flying the Palestinian flag, and of course, the town of North Andover, MA is flying the Palestinian flag as well.

The flags are popping up everywhere, but until now it mostly in the hands of protesters and idiot students. It’s a new thing to see governments flying the flag of Palestine in support of a terrorist government.

Is Iran next? North Korea?

No, probably China, since they pour billions into high schools and colleges in order to spread their propaganda. I’m serious, they do.

But for now, it is Palestine, because nothing says peace, love, and understanding (and education for kids) like Palestine.

Since when is it ok to take down the American flag at an Oakland, CA school and fly a Palestinian flag? https://t.co/3NNJSvrH0e

— playteaux (@playteaux) November 16, 2023

In Oakland, when they took down the Palestinian flag after controversy erupted, they refused to put the American flag back up, despite California law requiring that it be flown.

North Andover, MA is also making a pointed statement by flying the Palestinian Flag.

Officials in @North_Andover, MA, have decided to fly the Palestinian flag on the town common until Dec. 7. Because why wouldn't you raise a flag in honor of the savage terrorist regime that has just murdered or kidnapped dozens of US citizens? pic.twitter.com/qCRKgABfP0

— Jeff Jacoby (@Jeff_Jacoby) November 16, 2023

At least in N. Andover they still fly the American flag and the POW/MIA flag as well, so Palestine only comes in third in line for respect.

Palestinian activist in headscarf angrily throws American flags to the ground on Veterans Day in NYC.

Several of the flags are replaced with the Palestinian flag.

pic.twitter.com/ps3zaFz9MN

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) November 11, 2023

Individuals flying the Palestinian flag or any other are well within their rights, and I may disagree with their beliefs and feel free to argue with them (or not), but it is quite another thing to have government schools and actual local governments do this. For the local governments, it is obviously divisive and frankly silly, in the vein of the old “nuclear-free zones” of the 1980s.

But when public schools do it the people involved should be harshly punished. This isn’t the exercise of free speech. It is government employees using their power to propagandize students, and in this particular case breaking the law to do so.

Yet this sort of thing is increasingly common. The President of Michigan’s State Board of Education actually put out a statement on the Israel-Hamas war, as if it is her job to do so.

Pamela Pugh did so not as a private citizen, but in her position as a government employee.

What the heck? This isn’t the exercise of free speech; it is an abuse of power.

The Gaza war is yet another example of moral panic–right now there are massacres in Darfur, and nobody cares. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs have been killed by Assad in Syria, and nobody cares.

Seven months into Sudan’s civil war, a powerful paramilitary group is ransacking and capturing Darfur. The group is on the verge of seizing the entire region, according to residents, analysts and UN officials. “They came to massacre us,” a teacher said. https://t.co/S7Wef8y8bG

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 16, 2023

Hamas massacres Jews and suddenly the world erupts when the Israelis move to root out the terrorist government of Gaza. It’s not that Arab lives matter to these people–they clearly don’t–it’s that they now have an opportunity to bash Israel, and use their power as government employees to do so.

At least in North Andover, there are electoral checks on such abuses; if the citizens disapprove they can vote out the city officials. But the schools and government employees will face no consequences.

It makes me ill.