Merri-bek Council in Melbourne to fly Palestinian flag for six months

A council in Melbourne’s inner north has endorsed a controversial motion to fly the Palestinian flag for six months.

A council in Melbourne’s inner north has endorsed a controversial motion to fly the Palestinian flag for six months and review its contracts with businesses that support “Israeli’s illegal occupation”, causing one Jewish leader to slam the move as “divisive” and “shameful”.

Merri-bek Council, which covers suburbs like Brunswick, Glenroy and Coburg, passed a motion on Wednesday night to acknowledge the conflict in Gaza did not begin on October 7 but “with the occupation of Palestine”.

The motion was passed by a vote of six to four, and resolved to hoist the Palestinian flag at the Coburg Civic Centre “in recognition of the specific situation of a genocide being carried out against the Palestinians in Gaza”.

It includes clauses that condemn senior Israeli politicians and military officials that “seek to dehumanise Palestinians” and a plan to write to Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong urging them to call for an immediate ceasefire.

A pro-Palestinian rally in Melbourne. Picture: Getty Images

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan criticised the local council’s decision to involve itself in the Middle East conflict.

“This complex global situation is being negotiated right now by world leaders, not by local governments here in Melbourne,” the Premier said.

“The situation in the Middle East is an incredibly complex one. Our responsibility here in Victoria is to ensure the people who are directly affected since those terrorist attacks on the seventh of October are provided with love and care and support, and that there’s a particular focus on making sure people in our community feel safe here in Melbourne.”

Merri-bek councillor Sue Bolton, from the Socialist Alliance, put the motion forward in the hope of getting other councils to follow suit.

“I believe that peace is everybody’s business,” Ms Bolton said.

“Councils should take a stance on extraordinary situations. That doesn’t mean councils will have a position on every international conflict that comes along. But this is an extraordinary situation of a genocide which has been carried out in our name.” She said the response to the motion had been “overwhelmingly positive”.

“Some will be alienated, that is true.

“But there are many Jews, including people who have an Israeli background, who are strongly supportive of this motion.”

Merri-bek Councillor Sue Bolton. Picture: Jason Edwards

The motion also calls for a review of local council contracts with companies that are involved or profit from the “illegal Israeli occupation”,

“There might not be any (contracts). But there also might be some (with) telecommunications companies. We have to get that report back,” Ms Bolton said.

The councillor said the council was looking into cloud-based platform monday.com, which is based in Tel Aviv. She confirmed the Palestinian flag had been ordered and would fly later in the week, with pro-Palestinian posters already seen in the main streets.

Councillor Oscar Yildez, who voted against the motion, has received death threats from Palestine supporters. “To have my family involved in this, for them to receive death threats, for them to potentially fear going to university today – that’s not fair. You don’t involve my family,” he said.

“This is what Sue Bolton’s done. This is what Sue Bolton does really well.

“She promotes a divisive, fractured council.

“I don’t even want to mention some of the messages that I’m getting about my two girls. I’ve got a 20 to 23 year old … to suggest that they’re going to do what is being done to women living overseas to my girls, that’s just not fair.”

Independent Merri-Bek councillor Oscar Yildez.

Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich said the council’s decision marked a “shameful day for local politics”.

“It is hard to believe that anyone with a shred of humanity and empathy could propose such a ­vicious, heartless draft,” he said.