Sebastia, West Bank, occupied Palestine is the site of Roman ruins that any tourist would be delighted to visit, especially because you can walk inside them, alongside the tall, standing columns that used to line the main road, up the steep steps of the amphitheater, and through the outlines of dwellings, feeling the presence of people who once lived there. This treasure, on the outskirts of town, attracts Palestinian and international students and researchers, tourists and archeologists. Sebastia has even more ancient roots, going back to 3500 BCE with artifacts to prove it displayed in a small, expertly curated museum in a historic building opposite the picturesque town square.
Just a short walk uphill towards the ruins brings you to an open plaza. There the town just completed the project of constructing a modern information center and
paving the plaza to better accommodate tour buses. In the center of the plaza is a new flag pole from which to fly the Palestinian flag -- black, white, green and red. The flag was hoisted on August 13. A week later Israeli military authorities ordered the flag and pole to be removed because it was upsetting visiting Israeli settlers. Yes, that is correct. In this peaceful, beautiful Palestinian town with its recently renovated tourist accommodations the Israeli military is in control, due to the 1993 Oslo peace agreement. And a Palestinian flag and its pole are considered a threat to Israeli security.
The new construction was funded by Belgium, and approval was granted by Israel in 2018. The grand opening was scheduled for September, 2020. That’s when Palestinians intend to re-install the flag pole, and I have no doubt they will raise the Palestinian flag, without permission. Neither do I doubt that the Israeli army will demand the flag’s removal, or remove it themselves.
I was in this town a year ago, a gawking tourist, happy to be with my Palestinian host and a 14 year old Palestinian girl learning the history of her people and her land. At that time we discovered the stump of a flagpole on the top of the hill above the Roman ruins. From there we could see a settlement in the valley below. The settlers there, protected by the Israeli army, had sent its youth to destroy this flagpole because it flew a Palestinian flag. Though they needed no justification, Israel had long ago declared Sebastia’s archeological resource to be an Israeli National Park, heralding that Tel Samaria (Sebastia) was the capitol city of ancient Israel. Citizens of Sebastia lift up a different history and in 2014 put their flag on top of this hill. Every time settlers came to remove it, it would reappear, until finally the base that held it in place was itself destroyed.
The settlers may think they have had the last word, backed as they are by the Israeli army, but I believe the Palestinian flag will fly there again, whether by another act of Palestinian resistance or when Palestine is finally free.
