Zionists claim flying the Palestine flag is breaking the law!

In line with Aberdeen's history of opposition to global injustice and inequality, on November 29th Aberdeen City Council supported the UN's Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People by flying the Palestinian flag from the Council's Town House. Sadly, though not surprisingly, it recently came to light that the UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI) attempted to prevent the flying of the flag, accusing Aberdeen City Council of breaching the Equality Act 2010. Thankfully the council dismissed the vexatious accusation, with the Lord Provost stating that he was "surprised and saddened" by UKLFI's allegation that the gesture was "an attack by the City Council on the State of Israel". In response to UKLFI the Lord Provost said that "it is my hope that by the simple act of flying the flag, we will bring the unresolved question of Palestine to the forefront of people's minds".

The November 29th flag-flying was to mark the UN's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, part of the UN's annual observances, which are aimed at promoting "awareness of and action on important political, social, cultural, humanitarian or human rights issues". Flying the Palestinian flag in Aberdeen was intended to promote exactly those ends: to raise awareness and prompt action to challenge the ongoing human rights violations, occupation, discrimination and exile faced by Palestinians. The flag-flying received support from both of Aberdeen's MPs, a number of local MSPs, councillors, trade unions, faith groups and other civil society organisations such as Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

"I am proud that Aberdeen City Council are flying the Palestinian flag from the Town House on November 29th to commemorate the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This day serves as an important reminder of continual hardships Palestinians face on a daily basis and the need for a just and lasting peaceful resolution to the conflict. I am happy to see Aberdeen stand side by side with the Palestinians at this time". Anne Begg MP

The UKLFI has wilfully chosen to miss the point of the flying of the Palestinian flag. To accuse the council of discrimination ignores the broad support for an act of solidarity with those who face long-term and daily injustice, violence and human rights abuses. In fact their concerns on equality would be best directed at the state of Israel itself, which today fails to comply with the recommendations of the UN's Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination. The Committee's most recent report (in 2012) depicts a horrifying picture of the Israeli state, where racial discrimination is deep-rooted in all aspects of its legislation. Other than asylum-seekers and refugees, sections of society deeply affected by racist legislation include Jewish minorities (e.g. Ethiopians, Mizrahi, Russians and Sephardim), non-Jewish minorities and the indigenous Bedouin populations. CERD also reports a gender-related dimension to this racial discrimination with a continued low level of education and managerial employment for women.

The Commission report also touches on the on-going Israeli occupation, the source of endless human rights violations and gross discrimination, stressing its concerns for "actions that change the demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Occupied Syrian Golan". This apparent euphemism for ethnic cleansing is just the tip of the iceberg. Far from an exhaustive list of Israel's breaches of international law include: the construction of the wall on Palestinian land (built beyond the Green Line and within fragmenting Palestinian communities within the West Bank); the appropriation of Palestinian water resources for the benefit of illegal Israeli settlements; the confiscation of land, then used to provide the infrastructure for the network of Israeli settlements (e.g. "apartheid" roads built for the sole use of settlers); the arrest and illegal transfer of Palestinian political prisoners to Israeli jails, including the unlawful use of administrative detention; the violation of children's rights, including imprisonment and documented torture practices; the collective punishment of Gazans through the on-going blockade and imposed electricity crisis; and of course the ever-expanding Israeli state sponsored settlements in the West Bank. In 2013 the UN's Special Rapporteur in the Occupied Territories stated that the occupation was "an affront to international law" and that Israel was "slouching toward nothing less than a Palestinian holocaust."

Meanwhile the UKLFI are no doubt gearing up for a busy year after hearing the news that the UN has declared 2014 as the Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This is an organisation which states its aims is "to combat attempts to undermine, attack or delegitimise Israel, Israeli organisations, Israelis, and / or supporters of Israel". Attacking a council for acknowledging a UN day of observance shows the ridiculous and irrational lengths that such organisations will go to in order to defend Israel apartheid. As global public opinion shifts against the countless and daily crimes of the Israeli state we can only expect to see more such desperate and shambolic attempts to undermine legitimate criticism of Israel – such desperation is surely a sign that we are a little closer to the day where the world celebrates freedom for Palestine.
Dave Black & Fiona Napier
Aberdeen 30 November 2013