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A Palestinian flag flew on the flagpole outside the entrance to Oakland’s Fremont High School this week.

It was unclear when the flag was raised, and neither leadership at the school nor with the Oakland Unified School District responded to J. requests for comment. A photo of the flag was shared widely on Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter. The flag was gone by Wednesday, according to a local news station.

Zack Haber, a freelance journalist and substitute teacher at Fremont High School, took the photo. He told J. on Friday that he photographed the flag not on assignment for a news story but because he “thought it was something to document.” Haber said he supported whoever hoisted the flag as an act in support of Palestinians.

“I thought it was a good thing that it was there,” said Haber, whose work has appeared in Oaklandside and the Vallejo Sun. “So I took the photo and I uploaded it.”

Fremont High School in Oakland… pic.twitter.com/cXhgZ5H960

— Zack Haber (@ZZZZZZZZZZZack) November 14, 2023

Haber’s photo went viral, with some criticizing that a public school would fly the Palestinian flag rather than the U.S. flag, which is required by law in California during school hours. Among the X accounts that shared the photo was Libs of TikTok, a provocative right-wing account with 2.6 million followers.

Between Haber’s and the Libs of TikTok accounts, the photo had been viewed more than 3.2 million times and reposted more than 10,000 times by Friday.

“Then shut the school down and let Palestine pay for it,” stated one post that earned about 3,400 likes and 58,000 views. “Stop all taxpayer funding to this school.”

J. could not confirm Friday who raised the flag or whether it was school-sanctioned. The X account of @renepakmorrison said the flag had been up “for weeks” and commended Haber for publishing the photo because it raised greater awareness of student organizing efforts.

Some parents took issue with the display and spoke to local news station KTVU, including Shira, an OUSD parent of a seventh-grader who is of “Israeli Arab ethnicity” and was identified only by her first name.

“If it was about peace, there would have been an Israeli flag and a peace sign as well,” she told KTVU.

If it was about peace, there would have been an Israeli flag and a peace sign as well.

Tye Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, also criticized the display. “Jewish students are not safe in Fremont,” he said in a post on X.

California’s education code states that public schools must fly U.S. flags during school sessions. It’s also common for schools to fly other flags, for example, during Pride Month. In 2023, the Sunol Glen School Unified School District in the East Bay banned the flying of flags other than the U.S. or California flags.

The Fremont High School flag-raising followed the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel when Hamas massacred about 1,200 people and took an estimated 240 hostages into Gaza. Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas has killed 11,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

The Israel-Hamas war has led to a dramatic rise in pro-Palestinian protests and in antisemitic incidents in the U.S., including the Bay Area.

In Oakland schools, intense anti-Israel activism has worried parents of Jewish and/or pro-Israel students. These parents, as well as some teachers union members, say that Jewish children are facing harassment, intimidation and isolation.

The Oakland Education Association, the teachers union, published a statement on Oct. 27 condemning what it called Israel’s “75 year long illegal military occupation of Palestine,” a statement that appears to condemn the establishment of the country in 1948. It also condemned what it called Israel’s “genocidal” policies against Palestinians.

A Nov. 8 Oakland school board meeting included an Israel-Gaza resolution on the agenda, but the meeting was adjourned early without a discussion of the resolution when attendees became disruptive.