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 鈥渦ntil a cease fire is declared in the current humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza鈥 was unanimously adopted by councillors on October 24.
Canterbury-Bankstown has a population of more than half a million people.
The motion, titled 鈥淪upporting peace in Gaza and Palestine鈥, was moved by聽Labor Councillor Khodr Saleh and it聽read:
鈥淭hat Council:
鈥1. Raise the Palestinian flag in support of the Palestinian people at both Bankstown鈥檚 Paul Keating Park and Campsie Administration building until a cease fire is declared in the current humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza;
鈥2. Dedicate a space near Paul Keating Park for all the community to lay wreaths and flowers for innocent lives lost;
鈥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;
鈥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.鈥
Saleh told 麻豆传媒 he was proud of the decision:聽鈥淐anterbury-Bankstown City Council is not only the capital of multiculturalism in Australia: it is the capital of humanity.鈥
It is the first municipality in the country to expressly stand with Palestine in the context of federal Labor鈥檚 pro-Israel bias in its war on Gaza.