Three German parties have recently blocked legislation that would have banned the burning of the Israeli flag, the Berlin-based B.Z. newspaper reported.
The Left, Green, and Social Democratic parties voted against the pro-Israel bill saying it would impede free speech.
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Under German law, it is illegal to burn the German flag in the federal republic and it is also illegal to burn nation-state flags at public events.
According to the Jerusalem Post, The Left Party lawmaker Sebastian Schlusselburg told B.Z. that "No faction wants Israel flags or Jewish symbols to be burned in Berlin. But a ban in criminal law, as demanded by the CDU [Christian Democratic Union], is the wrong way."
The CDU presented the bill to Berlin's parliament after Israeli flags were burned in demonstrations across the German capital in the wake of US President Donald Trump's 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
According to the report, Schlusselburg defended his party's move, saying that the German court declared that the burning of a flag is protected by free speech.
Dr. Elio Adler, head of the German Jewish organization Values Initiative, tweeted in response that "If you burn flags, that means symbolically people of the other country and that is certainly not an opinion worth protecting."
