A Jewish resident of the Jewish quarter of Vienna, the capital of Austria, complained that his landlord demanded he remove the Israeli flag he had hung inside his window – or else be evicted from his apartment.
The man had received the Israeli flag during the most recent Eurovision contest, which ended on Saturday night with Israel coming in ninth place.
The landlord told the Jewish resident to remove the flag, claiming it “offends one of the neighbors.”
When the Jewish man refused to remove the flag over the vague reason given, he was threatened, “remove the flag or leave the apartment.”
The incident brings to mind a similar case of Israeli flags being removed in Europe.
Last month during a soccer match between Union Berlin and FC Ingolstadt in Germany’s second division, a police security officer ordered fans to remove an Israeli flag they had unfurled in support of Almog Cohen, an Israeli player with the Ingolstadt team.
Cohen wrote on Twitter that he had noticed the Israeli flag and that it later disappeared, and that when he asked fans why the flag had been removed they told him a security officer had told them not to display “political symbols” at the stadium.
The Israeli player asked the security officer if flags from all countries are forbidden, to which the officer told him only “the Jewish flag” is banned.
Berlin’s police later apologized for the incident, calling it an incorrect decision on the part of the officer.
