A motion of solidarity with the people of Gaza was adopted unanimously by councillors in one of the largest municipality in Australia, Canterbury-Bankstown City Council.
The motion, to fly the Palestinian flag over the council offices “until a cease fire is declared in the current humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza” was unanimously adopted by councillors on October 24.
Canterbury-Bankstown has a population of more than half a million people.
The motion, titled “Supporting peace in Gaza and Palestine”, was moved by Labor Councillor Khodr Saleh and it read:
“That Council:
“1. Raise the Palestinian flag in support of the Palestinian people at both Bankstown’s Paul Keating Park and Campsie Administration building until a cease fire is declared in the current humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza;
“2. Dedicate a space near Paul Keating Park for all the community to lay wreaths and flowers for innocent lives lost;
“3. Protects and supports the democratic rights of the community to gather peacefully in Council public parks to demonstrate their views in support of the Palestinian people;
“4. Call on the Australian Government to work quickly with the international community to end the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza and its nearly one million Palestinian children and to restore access to food, electricity, water, fuel and medicine for around 2 million Palestinian civilians living in Gaza.”
Saleh told Green Left he was proud of the decision: “Canterbury-Bankstown City Council is not only the capital of multiculturalism in Australia: it is the capital of humanity.”
It is the first municipality in the country to expressly stand with Palestine in the context of federal Labor’s pro-Israel bias in its war on Gaza.
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