INDEPENDENT councillor Ursula Gavan has called on Limerick City and County Council to honour the vote of the full Council to fly the Palestinian flag on Shannonside in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Last month the City East representative urged the local authority to fly the Palestinian flag outside its offices on Merchants Quay.
This came after Labour TD Conor Sheehan, then a sitting councillor, last year had a motion, which was passed, for a Palestinian flag to be erected at City Hall.
Cllr Gavan also proposed, at the April meeting of the local authority, that the Council call on the government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill as a matter of urgency.
She told the Limerick Post this week that the Council have still not confirmed a date for the raising of the Palestinian flag at City Hall.
Speaking after following up with Council management to seek a date, Cllr Gavan said that “councillors united around our call for a show of solidarity on behalf of the people of Limerick with the people of Gaza and the West Bank. We have witnessed 18 months of genocide with a horrendous number of casualties of women and children in particular.”
“This simple gesture should have happened by now. We have to bear witness for the 2.2 million Palestinians forcibly displaced from their homes whose very existence is under threat.”
Cllr Gavan takes the view that the mechanisms for the Occupied Territories Bill are justified but require “political will”.
She claimed that, since getting back into government, this is something Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael seem to be reneging on.
“History will never forgive any government that fails to act to counter the genocide that continues to unfold before our eyes. Every elected councillor here in Limerick has a part to play by holding this government to account and calling them to immediately pass the Occupied Territories Bill,” she declared.
Cllr Gavan went on to say that she hopes the decision of the Council will be respected, as she has been inundated with calls and emails querying this delay.
“I hope that it can resolved quickly,” she said.
“Other Councils around the country have done this without controversy or delay and I am curious as to the delay in Limerick?
‘Now is the time to show solidarity not hide behind protocols or bureaucracy,” she concluded.
