Armed police stationed at Belfast City Hall after Palestine flag raised amid ‘chaos’

The decision to raise the flag passed by 32 votes to 28

Armed police have reportedly been positioned outside Belfast City Hall as the Palestinian flag was hoisted following a vote outside. Eyewitnesses described the scene as ‘chaos’ when the flag was raised shortly after midnight on Tuesday, December 2, with police stationed around the building.

The decision to raise the flag followed a Sinn Fein motion passed by 32 votes to 28 at a council meeting on Monday evening. An Alliance Party amendment proposing to illuminate City Hall in the colours of Palestine in January, rather than raising the flag, was defeated by 49 votes to 11.

Last month, the council voted by a larger majority to fly the flag on City Hall on November 29 to mark the UN international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. However, the flag was not flown after the council received legal advice following a unionist move to initiate a call-in mechanism for the proposal to be reconsidered.

A special council meeting was held on Monday to revisit the matter. Unionists expressed anger after the outcome of the vote was revealed, with the TUV warning of emergency legal proceedings in an attempt to prevent the flag from being raised.

In a statement released on Monday evening, Sinn Fein announced: “Sinn Fein has secured agreement for the Palestinian flag to fly tomorrow at Belfast City Hall. In the face of Israel’s barbaric and inhumane genocide, we must continue to do all we can to show solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza.”, reports the Mirror.

However, DUP group leader on the council, Sarah Bunting, criticised the move as a “scandalous abuse of process”. She stated: “This is a deeply divisive issue in Belfast, yet Sinn Fein and those who backed this move have shown no regard for the views of others and have simply railroaded their position through.

“Our small Jewish community will understandably view this as deeply intimidating and as a move that risks stoking antisemitism in our city. It is dangerous, it is cynical, and it must be called out for what it is.

“For decades, Sinn Fein has sought to marginalise and silence those who disagreed with them. If they believe unionists will simply accept this kind of heavy-handed, intolerant behaviour today, they are badly mistaken.”

TUV Councillor Ron McDowell also expressed his disapproval, stating that the council had “disgraced itself”. He added: “The days of unionists quietly accepting such cavalier disregard for their rights – or watching the small Jewish community in our city being trampled upon – are over. My position remains clear and unchanged: the only flag that should fly from City Hall is the national flag of the United Kingdom.

“But if members of council truly cared about human rights in the Middle East, they would recall that in the aftermath of the October 7 massacres (Hamas attacks in Israel in 2023), the nationalist and republican alliance in Belfast blocked any effort to light City Hall in the colours of the Israeli flag.

“Everyone can see the hypocrisy. It is nauseating and it must – and will – be called out. Every means at our disposal will be deployed to oppose this.”