A Taliban flag appeared to have been removed from a Brighton Beach home after criticism from a local politician.
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
A flag that appeared to be that of the Taliban — the infamous terrorist group and current government of Afghanistan — had been removed from a Brighton Beach home on Wednesday morning, the day after a local politician criticized it online.
In a video posted online by Council Member Inna Vernikov on July 23, the flag is visible waving on a flagpole outside the home, above a Palestinian flag. A spokesperson for Vernikov said the clip was filmed on July 22.
White with black Arabic script, the flag appears to be that of the Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021 after U.S. and other coalition forces withdrew from the country. When it rose to power, the group replaced the country’s old tri-color national flag with its own, which had previously been used during Taliban rule of the country between 1991-2001.
“My constituents called me terrified, because there is a Jewish day school just a block away from here, there is a synagogue down that block, there are daycares in this neighborhood, and we have terrorist supporters living amongst us,” Vernikov said in the video.
Modern Afghanistan has been hostile for Jewish people. According to The Guardian, there was a thriving Jewish population of at least 40,000 people as recently as the late 1800s, but it has been dwindling since then. Many Afghan Jews moved to Israel after the country was established in 1948, and Zebulon Simentov, believed to be the last Jewish person in the country, left in 2021. Afghan leaders have historically supported Palestine, but its leaders have remained largely quiet in the face of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The Taliban harbored al-Qaeda operatives — including its leader, Osama bin Laden — before and after the 9/11 attacks. The regime was quickly dismantled after the U.S. and its allies invaded the…
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