Vote to fly Palestinian flag over City Hall fails

A vote to fly the Palestinian flag over Dublin City Hall has failed.

The emergency motion, proposed by a group of independent Councillors, was backed by parties such as Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, Social Democrats,the Green Party and Labour.

Councillor Cieran Perry, who brought the motion forward, said the vote was “farcical.”

Despite the vote passing by 39 votes to 10, members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael abstained from the vote, and the motion failed to pass as an emergency motion needs the support of three-quarters of Councillors present in the chamber.

Fianna Fáil councillor Deirdre Heney introduced a motion for a peace flag to be blown instead, saying she did not believe flying a Palestinian flag would help ease the conflict.

Perry said it was ‘disappointing that Fianna Fail refuse to support the Palestinian people,” and claimed the party “do not represent the view of the Irish people.”

He said that Fianna Fáil abstaining from the vote was “hypocritical” as it had previously supported a motion that acknowledged Israel as an apartheid state.

Perry stated “thousands had marched in the last few weeks supporting the Palestinian people and calling for an end to the slaughter of innocent civilians.”

Councillor Noeleen Reilly said “the support of the majority of councillors for flying the Palestinian flag as a message of solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza has been undermined by Fianna Fail.”

“Anyone not calling out the genocidal actions of Israel is complicit in the ongoing slaughter,” she claimed.

Councillor Christy Burke said there was an element of “hypocrisy”, claiming that politicians supported Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion but they “ignore” a “similar situation in Gaza with the indiscriminate bombing of innocent people by the apartheid Israeli state.”

Burke said “there can be no equivocation, the relentless murderous assault on the people of Gaza must stop. We need an immediate ceasefire and Fianna Fail tonight have failed to support the people of Gaza in their hour of need.”

Dana Erlich, Israeli Ambassador to Ireland wrote to Dublin City Council in advance of the meeting.

In the letter, Erlich wrote “we know that this conflict touches many people in Ireland but we would respectfully ask you, as the chief executive and Council members of this multicultural capital’s city council, to consider the many Israeli citizens of all faiths, the Jewish community here in Ireland and the community supporting Israel that lives, works and contributes in this city, with regard to the symbolism that a Palestinian flag flying on City Hall has.”