Palestinian Arabs hold Nazi flag at Netzarim
Palestinian Arabs hold Nazi flag at NetzarimReuters

For at least the third time in recent months, Arab residents of Beit Umar have flown a Nazi flag over the village facing the main highway, angering Jewish residents.

The choice of timing is all the more appalling, coming less than a week after the bodies of three Israeli teens were discovered in Hevron.

Beit Umar itself is located between Hevron and Jewish town of Alon Shvut in the Gush Etzion region - it was outside Alon Shvut that the boys were abducted by their killers as they were on their way home. It lies just north of the Arab village of Halhoul, where the murdered teens' bodies were discovered last Tuesday by security forces. 

The video was filmed on Sunday, and the flag appears to have been flown to coincide with countrywide riots by Arab extremists over the murder of Arab teen Mohammed Abu-Khder, who was killed in a suspected "revenge attack" for the murder of Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Sha'ar and Naftali Frenkel.

The riots began in Jerusalem, where police and local Jewish residents were targeted with violence by Arabs, and has since spread to other parts of the country. The violence peaked over the weekend, after Abu-Khder's burial on Friday, and has since abated slightly, with officials vowing tough measures against Israeli Arabs who participate in the violence.

Beit Umar Google Maps (annotations by Arutz Sheva staff)

The last time a swastika flag was flown over Beit Umar was in October. It was eventually removed after some difficulty, after Arab residents went through great lengths to place the flag in a high, relatively inaccessible point, making it clearly visible from the Route 60 highway.

A similar event took place at Beit Umar a few months beforehand, when hundreds of residents of Gush Etzion who drove down Highway 60 were astounded to see an oversized Nazi flag flying next to a mosque in the Arab town.

As noted in an Arutz Sheva report last year, the use of Nazi symbolism is alarmingly commonplace among Palestinian Arab groups - from Islamists like Islamic Jihad and Hamas, to Mahmoud Abbas's own secular Fatah party.