{"id":605980,"date":"2025-12-01T20:48:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605980\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T20:48:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:48:33","slug":"palestinian-flag-to-fly-above-belfast-city-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605980\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian flag to fly above Belfast City Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark SimpsonCommunity correspondent, BBC News NI<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

The flying of the flag was first approved at a meeting of the council at the start of November<\/p>\n

Belfast City Council has voted in favour of flying the Palestinian flag above City Hall.<\/p>\n

The proposal from Sinn F\u00e9in was passed by 32 to 28 votes, and the party has requested that the flag goes up later.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian flag had been due to be flown on Saturday but it did not appear after the council received legal advice on the issue.<\/p>\n

The council had voted last month by an overwhelming majority to fly the flag but unionists objected, and then used the call-in procedure at City Hall to challenge the legitimacy of the decision.<\/p>\n

The legal advice over the flag flying was published on Belfast City Council’s website.<\/p>\n

It states that “the decision was not arrived at after a proper consideration of relevant facts and issues”.<\/p>\n

Other options explored<\/p>\n

The 60-member council revisited the issue at a special meeting on Monday evening ahead of its monthly meeting, however this vote was much closer than the original motion.<\/p>\n

The Alliance Party backed the original proposal, however on Monday it suggested illuminating the City Hall in Palestinian colours in the New Year.<\/p>\n

They voted against the flag flying, but it was supported by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Green Party, as well as Sinn F\u00e9in.<\/p>\n

It is not clear exactly when the Palestinian flag will appear.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in’s proposal suggested it go up at midnight, but for logistical reasons, it is thought to be unlikely.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

Sarah Bunting said flying the flag would “risk creating further division”<\/p>\n

The original plan to fly the flag was proposed by Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Ryan Murphy to mark the United Nations “international day of solidarity with the people of Palestine”.<\/p>\n

“In light of the continued genocide against the people of Gaza, it is right that we show solidarity and support to them,” he said.<\/p>\n

With 22 representatives on the council, Sinn F\u00e9in is the largest party at City Hall.<\/p>\n

Defending unionist objections, the leader of the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) at City Hall, Sarah Bunting, said: “Belfast City Hall represents everyone in our city. Flying the Palestinian flag would draw us into a deeply contested international conflict and risk creating further division here at home.”<\/p>\n

A detailed legal analysis of the plan to fly the Palestinian flag was distributed to councillors last week.<\/p>\n

They were told “the call-in was considered by counsel to have merit on procedural grounds but not on community impact grounds”.<\/p>\n

Monday’s monthly meeting is the last scheduled session of the full council this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark SimpsonCommunity correspondent, BBC News NI Getty Images The flying of the flag was first approved at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-605980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115646283225177376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}