Officers in Modi’in, Israel, are under investigation for alleged misconduct after reportedly cutting a Palestinian flag design off a man’s kippah during an encounter that led to his detention, according to the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Department.

The case involves Dr. Alex Sinclair, a 53-year-old from Modi’in, who said in a Facebook post that the incident began while he was sitting at a café when another man confronted him over his head covering.

“For the past twenty years, almost, I’ve worn a kippah that has both the Israeli flag and the Palestinian flag on it,” Sinclair wrote. “The reasons behind the kippah are long and complex and related to the messy ambivalence of my Jewish-Zionist identity… Anyway, I smiled at the man who was shouting at me, and I said, if you want to sit down with me and discuss politics, I’d be happy to, but it’s not against the law.”