DERRY City and Strabane District Council has passed a motion to light up civic buildings in the coloours of the Palestinian flag for two days following last week’s violence in Gaza which left more than 60 people dead and several thousand injured by Israeli security forces.
The Sinn Fein motion was passed by 22 votes to one at a special meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council at the Guildhall on Monday.
Councillor Sandra Duffy, who proposed the motion, said: “This is an important issue and we need to send a clear message of solidarity.
“The people of Derry have a long history of standing against aggression and last week two rallies in protest at what happened in Gaza were held.
“Israel must be held accountable for its actions.”
Seconding the proposal, SDLP group leader Martin Reilly said: “The actions of the Israeli defence forces are of grave concern around the world.
“It is not appropriate for defence forces to use live ammunition for crowd control and that has led to these deaths and injuries.
“There is a degree of anger in this city because of the history of Bloody Sunday.”
The DUP did not attend the meeting and Independent Unionist Maurice Devenney who voted against it.
He said: “”My concern at this is that there are issues locally that we as a council should be dealing with.
“We are wasting our time writing letters which are just going to be ignored, ripped up and thrown in the bin.”
But his proposal by to have council buildings lit up in the colours of the American Stars and Stripe flag for 48-hours to remember the victims of last week’s Texas school shooting wa ruled out of order by Sinn Fein Mayor Maoliosa McHugh.
The council is also to consider the expense of writing to every home and business in the council area to inform them of the products on the BDS boycott of Israeli products list.
Councillors supported a proposal from Sandra Duffy to look at the costs of posting out a leaflet to every house and business with the information, which had been proposed by independent councillor Paul Gallagher.
“If people didn’t take a stand on these issues, then we would still have apartheid,” he said.
“There is confusion about what is on the list and this council has to get the message out to every household and business.
“The most effective way to do that is for it to land on people’s doormats.”
However, SDLP councillor Tina Gardiner queried the cost of the leaflet campaign.
“I believe in the boycott but I don’t see the sense of putting out thousands of bits of paper many of which will just end up in the bin.”
The council has yet to agree on dates for the civic buildings to be lit up in the Palestinian colours of black, white and green.
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