A group of Independent councillors have slammed the vote against the flying of the Palestinian flag over Dublin’s City Hall as “farcical”.
The group submitted an emergency motion to the monthly meeting of Dublin City Council on Monday night.
Sinn Féin, Social Democrats, People before Profit and a number of individual councillors backed the motion which called for the flag to be flown for one week in solidarity with those in Gaza over what they called the continuing “indiscriminate slaughter” taking place there by the Israeli government.
In a statement by the group they said that despite an “overwhelming vote” by Dublin City councillors to fly the Palestinian flag over City Hall the “will of the majority councillors will not be enacted”.
Councillors voted 39 to 10 to fly the flag but what the group terms as the “strange rules regarding votes” resulted in the emergency motion “supported by the vast majority of councillors,” failed.
“To add further farce to the situation, the Fianna Fáil motion opposing the flying of the flag failed because the debate ran out of time,” the group added describing the situation as “verging on the comical”.,
Fianna Fáil’s Deirdre Heney proposed a counter motion calling for a peace flag to be flown no agreement was reached as the identity of a such a flag could not be reached in time during the three-and-a-half hour long meeting
Independent group leader councillor Cieran Perry described the Fianna Fáil attempt to oppose the motion as “hypocritical” given the support of of the party for an earlier motion acknowledging the Israeli state as an “apartheid state”.
Cllr Perry said it was “disappointing that Fianna Fáil refuse to support the Palestinian people. You do not represent the view of the Irish people”.
He pointed out that “thousands of people had marched in the last few weeks supporting the Palestinian people and calling for an end to the slaughter of innocent civilians”.
Former Lord Mayor councillor Christy Burke again highlighted the hypocrisy of politicians supporting the Ukrainian people against Russian aggression while ignoring a similar situation in Gaza with the “indiscriminate bombing of innocent people by the apartheid Israeli state”.
Cllr Burke continued that there can be “no equivocation, the relentless murderous assault on the people of Gaza must stop. We need an immediate ceasefire and Fianna Fáil tonight have failed to support the people of Gaza in their hour of need”.
Cllr Noeleen Reilly added that the support of the majority of councillors for flying the Palestinian flag as a message of solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza. “Anyone not calling out the genocidal actions of Israel is complicit in the ongoing slaughter,” she noted.
However, the Council passed a motion calling Palestine an “Apartheid State” referring to “Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians”.
The motion was brought by Labour Councillor Declan Meenagh last April, prior to the current violence erupting on October 7th, in light of an Amnesty International report.
Cllr Meenagh pointed out that “more democracy helped more violence didn’t help. Those living in Gaza are living in an Apartheid State.”
The motion was also backed by Sinn Féin councillor Daithi Doolan calling the death and destruction in Gaza as “genocide in real time”.
Cllr Burke asked the US ambassador to Ireland to meet with councillors to discuss American involvement on the Israeli side.
He also called for the arrest of Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu who was suspended for his comments on “dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza” and “Palestinians going to Ireland or deserts,” for incitement to kill.
Lord Mayor of Dublin Daithi De Roiste passed the motion which was backed by an overwhelming majority of councillors.
