Sheffield City Council faces pressure to fly Palestinian flag on international solidarity day
Campaigners are pushing for the issue to be discussed at an upcoming council meeting
Sheffield City Council is being challenged to follow the example of Rotherham and fly the Palestine flag over the town hall on a UN international solidarity day.
Palestine solidarity campaigner Julie Pearn has put a question forward to the next full meeting of Sheffield City Council on Wednesday, November 6.
She states: “Under pressure of the people of Rotherham, Rotherham City Council have agreed to fly the Palestinian flag on November 29 , UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
“United Nations agencies, the most senior international lawyers, the majority of countries, and millions of citizens around the world agree Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. We can see it with our own eyes on our screens and the statements of Israeli leaders make plain their genocidal intent.
“Israel is carrying out a systematic programme of ethnic cleansing and
extermination in Northern Gaza; Palestinians who do not evacuate are being starved, bombed or shot.
“Children are starving to death in the most horrific circumstances.
“The people of Sheffield have spoken in their thousands demanding immediate ceasefire, a complete two-way embargo on arms sales with Israel and condemnation of Israel’s war crimes. I repeat their demands.
“Will Sheffield City Council show solidarity with the suffering Palestinian people by flying the Palestinian flag, along with Rotherham, on November 29?”
Dr Pearn, who chairs Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine, has lobbied the council about many Palestine-related issues and successfully campaigned for the city to take up a twinning relationship with West Bank city Nablus.
There were big protests when the council flew the Israel flag last year, shortly after the Hamas attack on October 7, when 1,200 people died and 250 were taken hostage.
Images of protesters climbing up the building to take the flag down went viral on social media.
The council was the first in the country to call for a ceasefire in Palestine last November, as well as the release of hostages and for Israel to allow in aid to Gaza.
The current conflict, part of a 76-year history of violence since the state of Israel was declared in 1948, has seen at least 42,000 people killed in Gaza by Israeli military action.