According to a statement on her Twitter page, Shivat Friedman made the decision several days ago to begin walking around the Old City with an Israeli flag on display, in protest of the police decision to postpone the flag march due to safety concerns.The Jerusalem Day flag march, which has now been rescheduled for June 15th, was the trigger for the 11-day escalation between Israel and Hamas in May, during which over 4,000 rockets were fired into Israeli territory.
On Tuesday night she posted a video to her twitter account, @shivat_zion, where she has a following of over 3,000 people, detailing her experience of being detained by the police.
She explained that as she was walking through the city on her way home she passed through Damascus Gate with her flag on display and was harassed by Arab residents in the area. As she was walking she was approached by police who detained her and took her for questioning.
נעצרתי ונאזקתי בעוון הליכה עם דגל ישראל בדרכי לבית...איזו השפלה pic.twitter.com/H5zR4XlN5h
— שיבת ציון פרידמן (@shivat_zion) June 8, 2021
"The police did the work of the Arabs for them," Friedman said.
According to the video, the police reported her detainment over the scanner, saying that "a Jewish girl has arrived at Damascus Gate with the intention to cause incitement."
Damascus Gate has been a significant factor in the raised tensions between Israelis and Palestinians over the last two months and in particular during the month of Ramadan.
"I've experienced many things in my life, I'm 20 years old. I could have been arrested so many times, in so many situations," said Friedman. "I didn't believe that the only time in my life that I would be detained, the only time that I would be put in handcuffs, would be for walking around with the flag of Israel."