Every primary school pupil fancies themselves as a vexillologist after a few lessons of identifying the world’s flags.

Vexillology is a skill that lasts into adulthood too, as thanks to our early years, we can all make a decent fist of telling the difference between the flags of Belgium and German and France and the Netherlands.

Some flags will always be remembered as they are so striking, such as Japan’s with it’s big red circle, and the maple leaf of Canada.

Where most of us would fail, however, would be to correctly identify how many stars there are on the flags of Australia, New Zealand and the US.

Vexillology is, of course, getting harder by the year as new countries spring up and even more places gives themselves their own special flag.

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But now the rarely controversial and safe-as-houses retailer, M&S, has become embroiled in a very strange rammy over the ancient art of flag studying because of its latest Christmas advert.

M&S has apologised after being accused of posting an Instagram photo of Christmas party hats in the colours of the Palestinian flag on fire.

The image, an out-take from one of the company’s TV adverts, showed red, green and silver hats burning in a fireplace.

M&S said the intent was to “playfully show that some people don’t enjoy wearing paper Christmas hats”.

But the picture drew criticism from several social media users (where else?) who claimed there was a similarity between the colours of the hats and the Palestinian flag, with one user describing the photo as “distasteful”. This is not just any old flag row, this is an M&S flag row, indeed.

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Following the “outrage” the company removed the photo and said the advert was filmed in August, before the latest Israel-Gaza conflict began.

It said the hats were “traditional, festive coloured red, green and silver Christmas paper hats”. M&s then apologised for any unintentional distress caused.

The photo was an out-take from the company’s Christmas clothing and home advert, which is based on the premise that people should do away with festive traditions they no longer love.

That didn’t stop the ill-informed keyboard warriors on social media though, in which is yet another depressing example of idiots jumping in with two feet without thinking.

For a start, those that complained do not even know what a Palestinian flag even looks like.

As every schoolboy vexillologist knows, the colours on the flag of Palestine are green, red, white and black.

Note – there is no silver on it anywhere and the keyboard warriors seem to have conveniently glossed over the lack of a black party hat being burned in the advert, too.

Why let the facts get in the way of a faux-outrage anti-Semitic rant, after all?

If it was not so serious, then it would be laughable, and comes amidst growing anti-Semitism in the UK following the latest escalation of the Middle East conflict.

M&S was, of course, well known for its support of Zionism ever since it was founded in Leeds in 1884 by Michael Marks, a Jew who arrived in the UK from Belarus. Over the years, the company has moved away from its roots as it became a global brand.

But the ties between the M&S founding families and Israel saw former M&S chairman, Joseph Sieff, become the victim of a PLO assassination attempt at his London home in 1974.

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Even today, despite the founding Jewish families having no apparent influence, M&S is still vilified by those who disdain Israel, which is clearly where the root of this flag row comes from.

The Israel-Palestine conflict has been running ever since a Jewish homeland was set up in 1948.

Many Arabs have always refused to accept its existence, and nothing has changed in the intervening years, illustrated by the Hamas attacks last month.

Various invasions, counter invasions and peace treaties have failed to create a workable solution and it is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Taking sides from afar is a very dangerous thing to do amidst the rising death toll in Gaza and Israel, particularly if you’re on social media and you’re ignorant.

Flinging around nonsense on social media will do nothing to help the volatile situation and will instead just fan the flames.

Thankfully, M&S has also been defended by other social media users who said the hats are in traditional Christmas colours, which they clearly are, so that should be the end of it.

The Grinch seems to be is alive and well and spouting forth on social media.