So uhh... I got the flag of the Zionist Entity as a Christmas gift
Apparently it had been bought for my world flag collection before the al-Aqsa flood, and ever since then it's just been kinda sitting there all folded up at the back of the gifts-to-give shelf for over a year, because giving the Zionist flag to me on any occasion would be incredibly tone-deaf, and has only continued to become progressively more tone-deaf as... *gestures broadly at everything*
So finally it was decided to just give the flag to me today because "that's where the Christmas story happened" — and I said to this justification, "Bethlehem is in the West Bank, you have to go through like eight checkpoints to get there from Nazareth nowadays."
...But in any case the deed is done: I am now in possession of the flag of a settler-colonial vassal of empire currently committing an active, brutal genocide, to realize its expansionist ambitions under its racist ideology of ethnic supremacy. In other words, I have basically been given the equivalent of the Hakenkreuzflagge for Christmas of 1944.
After reviewing my options for things I can do with this gift, I have decided that I want to try redyeing the flag into either the Palestinian flag or the flag of the PFLP. I haven't dyed any fabric in nearly a decade so it'll be a good opportunity to practice that sort of crafts skill, I think.
I'll be "no fun" for a second and suggest that there's probably nothing good that can be done with publicly. Put it in the trash instead and just get a Palestinian flag instead. If you already have one then get a nicer one with gold fringes.
So you don't think bleaching and redyeing it is a good idea, either?
Edit: because it's a synthetic fabric things work a bit differently. I'm gonna have to look into how to do this right. Worst case scenario I'll try spray paint instead of dye.
I mean, if you'd think it be a nice arts and crafts project then have fun. I don't think it would send more of a message than a clean Palestinian flag if you were planning on flying it.
Consider this scenario. You have an ex on whom things didn’t end so well. If you see them a couple years later, and they ask “what did you do with all the love letters and little gifts I gave you?”, which response actually has the most impact:
‘1.) “I turned them into an effigy of you and then burned it.”
‘2.) “After a while I just threw them out.”
Personally I believe #2 is much more impactful.
The Zionist entity is an illegitimate state. The flag is illegitimate and does not belong in this collection. It should be discarded as the rubbish it is and never thought of again.
I mean that might be true with people, but Israel is never going to learn of this situation and there is a sort of poetic irony in tur ining the zionist flag into the flag of their victims. For anyone who believes in that sort of thing you could maybe even consider it some sort of manifestation ritual lol. I think it adds a sort of symbolism for OP to have a homemade Palestinian flag, and if and when someone asks about it they can say "well actually let me tell you about the history of that flag" and then hopefully they migjt even be able to talk about how it mirrors the history of the region. The flag was colonizing space in their collection but was righteously reclaimed.
Make a "closed section" of your collection for this one, the swastika flag, the flag of Rhodesia etc. Display it with the same contextualisation that Nazi artifacts are displayed in museums.
primary topic aside, worlld flag collection is such a cool thing. as a prime owner of geography autism, I would love to build up a world fllags collection myself. it's a cool project you have!
It's not illegal in Norway anymore but I still don't intend to do it because of the fumes. Also I am American but presumably "if she's not American" really means "if she doesn't live in the USA". This may or may not be pedantic to point out.
I keep many of my flags folded up in shelves sorted by category since I don't really have the space to display everything. The flags I do put on display I most often display indoors. From where I'm currently sitting, excluding flags made of paper, representations of flags, or the odd "duplicate flag", I can see some 58 different flags in this room. Some of these flags are affixed to the walls, displayed vertically; some are attached to flag-staffs placed into a little "receptacle" on the floor, like the flags behind politicians when making speeches; and most of the smaller flags are in things like ceramic mugs or dedicated stands on shelves, or have had their stick sort of fed into the hole in the side of a cardboard box at the top of a shelf as a makeshift way to display them vertically.
Nice, I have a small collection of flags gifted to me by people I've worked with, but they're all in a bag under my bed while I work out how to display them...