Scotland’s Glasgow City Council has raised the Palestinian flag over the city chambers in a move to express its solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip.
Sadie Docherty, Lord Provost, or civic head, of Scotland’s largest city said Friday that the flag is an expression of solidarity with Palestinians.
Docherty wrote a letter to Vera Baboun, the mayor of Bethlehem in Palestine’s West Bank, to inform her of this mark of support.
In addition, Docherty offered the Bethlehem mayor “heartfelt sympathy” to the residents in Gaza and said that people of Glasgow “are united by a common desire to support the Palestinian people.”
“I would like to convey my most sincere condolences to the many in your city and throughout Palestine who have been affected by this conflict,” said Docherty.
The decision to raise the Palestinian flag was met by criticism from the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, while residents of Glasgow welcomed the move, saying on their Twitter accounts that the city made them “proud to be Glaswegian.”
Fife Council has also announced plans to fly the Palestinian flag over Fife House in Glenrothes for a week in protest at the suffering of the people of Gaza.
The support for Palestinians came on the same day as Israel resumed its military offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip after the expiry of a 72-hour-long truce between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
About 1,900 Palestinians, including more than 400 children, have been killed and over 9,500 others wounded since the Israeli military first launched its brutal military aggression against Gaza on July 8.