Councillors’ heated debate over motion to fly Palestine flag at council headquarters

Should Meath Co Council fly the Palestinian flag outside its offices in Navan and if it does should the existing Ukrainian flag already flying there be removed and the Palestinian one be put in its place?

That was the question posed for county councillors at their December meeting on Monday when the issue proved controversial and led to strong exchanges for and against the move.

Three Sinn Fein members – Cllrs Helen Meyer, Eddie Fennessy and Michael Gallagher – tabled a notice of motion asking the council to “recognise the state of Palestine in accordance with the Programme for Government” and to fly the Palestinian flag on council buildings as a show of support for the Palestinian people. A council official, replying to the motion, said that the council was guided by the Office of An Taoiseach in relation to such matters and no such guidance had been forthcoming in relation to flying the Palestinian flag at council buildings.

On three flagpoles at the council offices the National Flag, the European flag and the Ukrainian flag are on display. Presenting the motion Cllr Fennessy said that as of 1st December, 15,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israel, 6,150 of them children. A further 7,000 people were missing. Thirty six thousand people had been injured. Fifty eight thousand people had been injured since the invasion of Palestine. “They are shocking statistics and no matter what way you look at it, genocide is genocide."

He said the council’s response to the SF motion was questionable and the council executive seemed to be saying they could not fly the Palestinian flag outside its buildings without the permission of the Taoiseach. If that was the case he said he could point to similar councils all over the country where Palestinian flags were being flown on their buildings.

He asked why it was okay to fly the Ukrainian flag outside the council buildings but that same courtesy and solidarity was denied to the people of Palestine. Cllr Gallagher and Cllr Meyer said they fully supported Cllr Fennessy.

Fine Gael Cllr Paddy Meade said he opposed the motion. He didn’t want to get into the issue of Israel or Palestine, the issue was about flying a flag. If there was to be flying of flags he was in favour of flying the flags of countries where Irish troops were serving. There were terrible wars going on everywhere. Mali had a terrible war. There were terrible things happening in 22 countries at the moment ”and they are terrible, horrible things”. But whether the council should be picking and choosing which war to be supporting and which not was not a question for the Meath Co Council. He was happy enough for the Ukrainian flag to come down “but that does not mean we stop our support for Ukraine”.

Independent Cllr David Gilroy said he opposed the motion because he thought the only flag to be flown on council buildings was the national flag. He questioned some of the wording in the motion saying that he did not think the Irish State formally recognised Palestine. Independent Cllr Trevor Golden said councillors needed to reflect on the fact that further down on the council agenda was a call for a ceasefire in Gaza “and now we have a motion calling for the flying of the flag at one of the groups”.

Fine Gael Cllr Alan Tobin said that because we would always have divisions over these issues perhaps we should choose a week when a peace flag or peace symbol could be flown and where everyone in the county could reflect on all the atrocities in the world.

A council official said they were flying the Ukrainian flag “because we were asked to”. He said that if the motion before the council was adopted the council would have to take down the Ukrainian flag. Following a show of hands the motion was defeated by 17 to five.

On Monday this week Dublin City Council voted to fly the Palestinian flag from City hall for seven days. A motion to this effect was brought before the council in November but it failed. This week the council agreed to rescind its decision. A spokesperson for the council said that in light of the “unique and unprecedented circumstances that prevail in Gaza” the city council agreed to a deviation from the “Protocol for the Flying of Flags from Civic Buildings”.

The council protocol states that where three flagpoles are in place the Dublin flag, the National flag and the flag of the European Union should be flown. It may also fly flags of other nations when that building is hosting a head of state or government delegation. And flags of nations twinned by Dublin may be flown.

“Dublin City will not fly any flags that support political, union or religious movements or support discrimination or prejudice”.