PRO-ISRAEL groups have criticised a Scottish council for seeking to fly the Palestinian flag on some public buildings in a gesture of solidarity.
It comes after Renfrewshire Council gave the green light for the Palestinian flag to be flown from Renfrewshire House and Renfrewshire Town Hall in Paisley as well as in Houston Square in Johnstone.
Independent councillors Eddie Devine and Andy Doig had brought forward a motion calling for the flags to be flown in a bid to draw attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, the date of the Hamas attack on Israel which killed more than 1000 people.
However, pro-Israel groups reacted with anger at the move, claiming it was a “dog whistle” for racists.
“However well-intentioned it may be, the message many Jews and Israelis will get is that they are not welcome,” a spokesperson for the Confederation of Friends of Israel in Scotland told The Sun.
While Sammy Stein of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council claimed the flying of the flag would “increase fear” amongst the Jewish community.
"It is sad and concerning that a council has decided to take a partisan and biased position on the conflict, which has been a tragedy in the region for decades,” he said.
“By deciding to fly the Palestinian flag and adopting this one-sided position, Renfrewshire Council is sending a message that will further increase fear and concern experienced by the Jewish community."
But Devine said the motion was being misinterpreted.
“It was myself and another councillor, Andy Doig, who brought the motion,” Devine told The National.
“Because we were sickened by seeing men, women and children blown to pieces while living in tents because their houses have been destroyed.
“Not everyone in Palestine is Hamas. It’s the ordinary Palestinian people we are supporting not any organisation like Hamas or Hezbollah.
“It’s nothing to do with them. It’s just that there needs to be an end to the killing of innocent men, women and children.
“The motion is so that ordinary Palestinians will know that people are seeing what they’ve been through.
“It’s being taken in a way that really wasn’t meant. We’re saying stop the bombs and talk.
“I don’t think they get that. We just want people to realise that it’s human life that’s being destroyed.”
It comes after the Israeli military bombed a school in central Gaza, killing 30 Palestinians and injuring more than a 100.
The Israeli Defense Force said that a Hamas control centre was embedded in the school.
The BBC confirmed that children were amongst those injured in the attack.
