Semiotics of Flags in Colonial Spaces: The Flag as an Identity Rhizome in the Literature of Palestinians in Israel

Abstract

Shireen Abu Akleh was a prominent Al-Jazeera Palestinian journalist who was killed by the Israeli on 11 May 2022 while she was wearing a blue press vest and covering an army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli occupied West Bank. The funeral procession of Shireen Abu Akleh in Jerusalem in May 2022 saw Israeli police forcefully confiscating Palestinian flags. This act raises questions about the symbolism and implications of raising or removing flags. The following article explores the semiotic use of the Palestinian flag in Palestinian literature in Israel. I discuss the significance of the Palestinian flag in the narrative spaces created by Palestinians in Israel by examining various literary works, and the identity discourse presented by such works through the flag and its symbolic ability to deconstruct Israeli policy.