Scottish council endorses flying of Palestinian flag on public buildings in solidarity with Gaza

A Scottish council has approved the flying of the Palestinian flag from public buildings in solidarity with Gaza.

Renfrewshire Council, which is run by the Scottish National Party (SNP) endorsed the flying of the Palestinian flag from Renfrewshire House and Renfrewshire Town Hall in Paisley, as well as in Houston Square in the town of Johnstone, Scottish daily The National reported.

The motion to fly the flag was brought forward by independent councillors Andy Doig and Eddie Devine last week in a bid to raise awareness of the humanitarian catastrophe facing Palestinians as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Almost 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s assault on the Strip, the vast majority of whom are civilians. Most of Gaza’s towns and cities have been left unhabitable by Israeli forces, with almost all of the population displaced.

Additionally, Israel has blocked aid into the Palestinian territory, which has seen deadly mass hunger and famine set in across the enclave.

Doig and Devine say that flying the flag is the least they can do to show solidarity with and raise awareness of the plight of Palestinian civilians affected by the war.

“[W]e were sickened by seeing men, women and children blown to pieces while living in tents because their houses have been destroyed,” Devine told The National.

However, the move has come under criticism from various minor pro-Israel groups in Scotland.

“However well-intentioned it may be, the message many Jews and Israelis will get is that they are not welcome,” a spokesperson for the Confederation of Friends of Israel in Scotland told The Scottish Sun.

Sammy Stein of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council claimed the flying of the Palestinian flag would allegedly “increase fear” amongst the West Coast’s Jewish community.

However, Doig and Devine rejected such accusations and said that the move would show Palestinians in Gaza that the world was aware of their vast suffering.

“Not everyone in Palestine is Hamas. It’s the ordinary Palestinian people we are supporting …,” Devine said.

“There needs to be an end to the killing of innocent men, women and children.

The motion is so that ordinary Palestinians will know that people are seeing what they’ve been through.”