Belfast: Palestinian flag flies over City Hall despite council block

A vote to fly the Palestinian national colours at Belfast City Hall may have been blocked by a technical ruling, but protesters found their own novel method of honouring Palestine. With about a dozen helium-filled balloons and an attached red, white, green and black flag, those marking the International Day for Solidarity with the People of Palestine managed to see the symbolic cloth flutter its way through the sky above the city centre’s main landmark.

Despite passing by a margin of 41 to 15 at a November 3 meeting, the vote to stand in solidarity with the besieged people of Palestine was overridden by unionist politicians making use of the ‘call-in’ mechanism. This process was brought in during 2014 to act as an additional check on council decision making. It entitles councillors to request that a decision be reviewed if they believe proper procedure was not followed, or it may have a disproportionate effect on a particular community. It requires 15% of councillors to back the call-in request.

A valid call-in will lead to a decision being paused until it is reviewed. The matter must then be re-examined at the next council meeting. If a legal verdict rules the risk of negatively impacting a given community is genuine, the matter requires 80% of councillors to vote in favour for the decision to go through. The matter of the Palestine flag’s official pole-mounted – as opposed to helium-assisted – flying is currently on pause.

Ugly cocktail of hate at loyalist counter-protest

The workaround by Palestine solidarity activists was part of a larger protest that saw well over 2000 people make their way on to the streets of Belfast to call for an end to the genocide. A loyalist counter-protest was organised by the 1642 Boyne Bridge Defenders Historical Group.

Promotion for the latter assembly bizarrely included an image that seemed to encapsulate present day Gaza, as children are shown trudging through a dreary rain-soaked landscape populated with dilapidated tents. Yet the image repurposed for a pro-Israel demo shows mainly white children despondent alongside the message:

They have no future unless we stand together and fight!

Perhaps another manifestation of the phenomenon in which, somewhere in the subconscious of the reactionary mind there perhaps lurks a recognition of the harm they’re causing, alongside a fear of it being revisited on them.

Far-right influencers had also been pushing for a strong presence, saying:

Tomorrow we must fill Belfast city centre and stand together in defiance against this treasonous executive and city hall.

They are the enemy within, they have shown time and time again that we the people of ulster [sic] are a second class choice to them.

Our silence will be their consent to replace us with a 3rd world culture in an aim to exile our Christian ways of life.

The message continued:

Tomorrow we stand as one to make a clear statement to this government, “end the invasion and start deporting”.

It’s get them out or we the people will put you out, nunc pro tunc.

As it turned out the use of apocalyptic racist rhetoric and bemusing deployment of Latin phraseology typically confined to dry court documents didn’t entice the desired numbers. Roughly 200 turned up to hear a cocktail of loyalism, Zionism, racism, Islamophobia, and Christian chauvinism, all of which are quite natural bedfellows. Loudspeaker chants focused on the religious part, while union and Israeli flags were brandished, including one with the Israeli Genocide Forces logo alongside the words “We love Israel”.

‘Israel’ backers celebrate Bloody Sunday troops, while anti-racists stand with migrants

Others brandished a banner with the badge of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, and the words “Soldier F was just doing his job.” This is in reference to the British paratrooper who was recently acquitted of murdering two men and attempting to murder five others in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre. The 2010 Saville Inquiry, while not referring to Soldier F explicitly, concluded that:

The immediate responsibility for the deaths and injuries on Bloody Sunday lies with those members of [British Army] Support Company whose unjustifiable firing was the cause of those deaths and injuries.

Meanwhile, on the anti-genocide side, where the protest was larger by a factor of more than ten, speakers expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian people still suffering immensely. Ivanka Antova of United Against Racism said:

To us here in our shared home, Belfast, it is incredibly important to remain steadfast in our support and solidarity. The far-right reached new levels of vitriol opposing this peaceful Palestine solidarity rally, at a time when tens of thousands of children have been murdered and many more are starving to death and facing floods, facing lack of medication and facing living conditions because of the war on Gaza.

She also addressed the anti-migrant sentiment of the counter-protest, which was taking place just metres away at the front of Belfast City Hall:

In United Against Racism in Belfast, we call on all of us to continue to reject the dehumanising narrative of the far-right on this island. Migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum are an important part of us, of our community.

They are not a burden. They are not a threat. They are part of our city. Continue to show that the far-right are a small and bigoted minority. Here, they don’t speak for us.

Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International started by saying:

…the truth is, Israel’s genocide isn’t over.

He continued:

In new research published just this week by Amnesty International, we find that more than a month after the ceasefire was announced, Israel continues to impose conditions on Palestinians which amount to ongoing genocide. It is the conclusion of months of collecting testimonies and eyewitness accounts from local residents, medical staff, and humanitarian workers. So we will not accept the illusion that the ceasefire has delivered peace, because the genocide, I’m afraid to say, goes on.

PSNI embarrass themselves yet again

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) reported two arrests, one for “public order related offences” and one person who was subsequently cautioned for common assault. The Belfast Telegraph quotes the PSNI saying:

The right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are fundamental human rights which are protected in law and allow individuals to engage in peaceful protest. However, these rights are limited by the need to uphold the rights of others, protect public health and safety, minimise disruption to normal life and by the need to prevent and detect crime.

This is the same PSNI that brazenly violates free speech when it wastes valuable resources travelling to London to arrest peaceful anti-genocide protesters. Further questionable use of officers was in evidence on Saturday. In farcical scenes observed by the Canary, six officers raced down Belfast’s main street Royal Avenue to surround and caution two Palestine activists, accompanied by a police car pulling up alongside. They were advised their cases would be referred to the Public Prosecution Service for a potential charge of obstructive sitting; i.e. blocking a road. The matter related to peaceful protests two months and more before, yet the police seemed intent on treating the alleged offenders as if they were armed robbers.

Police preparation was generally poor at the protest, with limited attempts to separate the two gatherings, increasing the chance of flare-ups, which ultimately occurred and resulted in the altercations resulting in arrests. This will have pleased local media, who were able to lead with the alleged lawbreaking and once again attempt to associate overwhelmingly peaceful Palestine protest with disorder.

Featured image via the author