The Canterbury-Bankstown City Council unanimously decided on Tuesday 24 October to fly the Palestinian flag in front of the Council building as well as at Paul Keating Park in Sydney in support of its local community and the people of Gaza until a ceasefire is declared and residents of Gaza are supplied with food, water, fuel and medicine.
Following the lighting of the Sydney Opera House with the colours of the Israeli flag on Sunday 8 October, Canterbury-Bankstown Councillor Khodr Saleh OAM released a statement on Thursday 12 October that he has called the Canterbury Bankstown City Council CEO to inform him that at the next Council ordinary meeting on Tuesday 24 October he will move a motion that the Council to fly the Palestinian flag at both Bankstown’s Paul Keating Park and the Beamish Street Campsie Administration building in support of the Palestinian people.
During his speech at the Council meeting on Tuesday 24 October, Mr Saleh passionately highlighted the plight of the Palestinian people under Israeli military occupation particularly in Gaza where the were being mercilessly bombarded.
At a time when our community needs us to come together and to bring peace and care for each other, it’s disappointing to see moves made by the government that deny Palestinian people from sharing their grief.”
“As we speak there are massacres that are taking place in Gaza and we have still denied to light up any of Australia’s iconic landmarks in the colours of the Palestinian flag”
“To my Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza, I say: you are not alone. We wil stand for Palestine and we will not be silent. So stop the bombs, stop the war on Gaza and free Palestine.”
After the unanimous passing of the motion, Mr Saleh said, “Tonight we proved that our city is not only the multicultural capital – but the capital of humanity!”
In compliance with the motion passed with unanimous support of Labor, Liberal and independent councillors and the mayor, the Palestinian flag was raised on Wednesday 25 October at the two premises watched by enthusiastic supporters raising slogans of ‘Free Palestine’.
“This motion was moved unanimously in council last night, with several councillors sharing words of sympathy for the Palestinian people,” Mr Saleh said while speaking at the flag raising ceremony.
The flag-raising on Wednesday coincided with Global Dignity Day, which highlights the importance of kindness, understanding, tolerance and compassion, and aims to educate and inspire young people to better understand their self-worth.
“There are countless massacres that have happened in Gaza in the recent days and nobody’s ever lit up any of Australia’s iconic landmarks in the colours of the Palestinian flag,” he said.
“At a time when our community needs us to come together and to prioritise peace and care for each other, it’s disappointing to see moves that deny Palestinian people from sharing their grief, and rather seek to recognise only some of the victims,” Mr Saleh concluded.
Labor federal Minister Tony Burke said he supported his local council’s decision to fly the Palestinian flag and expects it will happen more broadly because Palestinian Australians whose family members are dying overseas have not had their grief acknowledged in equal ways as the country responded to the IsraelPalestine conflict.
“They were truly representing the grief that is in the community. And once again, it is not the Hamas flag that’s flying. It’s the Palestinian flag. It’s a flag that gives people the chance to know that there is recognition and not selective grief,” Mr Bourke said.
He said that there was nowhere in Australia where the colours of Palestinians had been acknowledged as worthy of grief until Canterbury-Bankstown Council in his electorate chose to fly the Palestinian flag, a decision he said he completely supported and expected to be repeated more broadly.
Mr Burke further added, “We can’t say we only grieve for certain people who are slaughtered. We can’t have a situation, as a nation, where we only formally acknowledge particular deaths.”
Mayor of Canterbury Bankstown Council, Bilal El-Hayek described the situation in Gaza as ‘nothing short of a humanitarian crisis’ as Israel continue to bombard the territory with missile strikes.
“Why the human rights of Palestinians are constantly being ignored” and that the community “cannot be silenced or in fear.”
“It’s about freedom of speech and letting the rest of the world know that there are two sides grieving,” he said.
“Let us be proud, we are a council with a heart and soul and we will show our true colours like the flag we fly.”
Mr El-Hayek proposed for council to write to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the opposition leader to make a “definitive statement like they did with Israel and declare that they stand with the innocent people of Gaza” and for an immediate ceasefire.
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