Flag marches designed to express support and solidarity with Jews living in Jewish-Arab mixed cities in Israel is planned for Sunday.
Flag marches have traditionally been organized by right-wing religious groups to assert Israeli sovereignty and have been carried out in Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day in the past. Participants, usually teenagers or young adults, march with Israeli flags.
A poster advertising the event says, "On Hanukkah, we are strengthening our brothers in the mixed cities."
According to the advertisement, there will be two separate marches, one in Lod and one in Ramle.
During the 11-day Israel-Hamas war in May, Arab riots broke out throughout Israel's mixed cities, including Jerusalem, Lod and Ramle.
In Lod, cars were torched and the property was damaged, eventually leading to 400 families leaving the city. In response to the initial attacks, far-right Jewish vigilantes entered Lod and attacked Arab residents and property, following the heavy dissatisfaction of the city’s Jewish residents with police response to the riots.
In one incident, a Jewish resident shot and killed an Arab one who was allegedly part of a rioting mob approaching a Jewish neighborhood.
"What will the flag march include?" tweeted Joint List MK Sami Abou Shahadeh on Sunday. "A smear campaign against the Arab residents of Lod, a victim-blaming effort towards those who started the May riots and a deserting of Lod's Arab residents to dangerous Jews.
"All this is given full support by the mayor and his friends," he added.
"At the end of the day, it is dangerous to be part of a minority group in Israel, in the same way that it was dangerous to be a Jew in Europe a century ago," Abou Shahadeh concluded.