Police detained a man in Modi'in on Monday for wearing a crochet kippa, or skullcap, with the Israeli and Palestinian flags.

Alex Sinclair said he was sitting in a cafe when another patron told him his skullcap was illegal and called the police. Several minutes later, two officers arrived, told him he was accused of incitement and detained him. He was taken to the city police station, where he was searched and put in a cell. The police confiscated his kippa and only returned it to him after an officer cut out the Palestinian flag.

"I told them that I didn't believe that it was illegal, but they didn't accept that," Sinclair said of the interaction in the cafe. "They told me, 'Either you come with us on your own accord, or we'll take you by force.'" The police didn't notify his wife that he had been detained, he added.

Sinclair said he was in the cell for around 20 minutes. "They took me out of the cell and brought me to the front of the police station, and told me that I could go," Sinclair recounted. "I said I wanted my kippa, that it's my property and important to me. They told me, 'Either you go now without the kippa, or we will forcibly put you back in the cell.'"

Sinclair said that a short while later, a policewoman returned with the kippa but with the Palestinian flag cut out. Sinclair said he had filed a complaint with the police's internal affairs unit.

Sinclair, a visiting lecturer at the Hebrew University in the international Jewish education program and a strategic and educational consultant to foundations abroad, said he was shocked by the detention. "When we got to the police station, I was very calm because I told myself that soon whoever was in charge would probably come out and apologize," he said.

Sinclair said the incident had caused him to lose faith in the police. "Not only aren't they protecting me, they see me as the enemy and the criminal," he said. "It's a terrible feeling. What if I need the police tomorrow, when I know that's how they treated me?"

Sinclair said he has been wearing the kippa for nearly 20 years. "I am a Jew with a religious lifestyle, observing Shabbat and keeping kosher, and I like wearing a kippa," he said. "But I also feel that because of it, people associate me with political and religious views that are far removed from mine."

Asked whether he thought the incident reflected the changing political climate in Israel, Sinclair said, "It's terribly painful that this is the direction our country is going, that people with opinions the police don't agree with can at any time be put into a jail cell."

The Israel Police said: "Following a report given to the police hotline about a man sitting in a place of business in the city wearing a kippa with a Palestinian flag on it, officers from the Modi'in police station arrived at the scene quickly to investigate and handle the report. The man was detained at the police station, and after questioning, was released. Since a complaint was filed with the police internal affairs unit, we cannot provide any further details at this time."

ETA: ‘Religious Groups Demand Action Against Police Officers Who Detained Man for Kippa With Palestinian Flag’