Only Happen in London ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-28580023 . Its been taken down now . Heard this on london radio this morning and i was half awake . Though it was a joke .

Probably worried that the IDF would bomb them.

You mean a misfiring rocket fired by Tower Hamlets might hit the Town Hall...

Can't see any problem with flying a flag in this instance, personally.

I have a problem with it . Should not be allowed on public property . Tower hamlets has no connection with palestine . At this rate anyone can fly any flag they feel like .

Good for you! And what's more, you get to express your disapproval without having your house shelled. Aren't you the lucky one?!

I'm with Jim on this one, I had a relative who served in Palestine from 1945 -1947 with the British Army. He came from Wapping. (Which is Tower hamlets).

We hardly remember the Jewish Irgun terrorists, or were they "Freedom Fighters"? who attacked British Soldiers and killed them, Google the "Sergeants Affair", two British Sergeants were kidnapped, tortured and hung, their bodies and the surrounding area booby trapped. This was one of many attacks by Jewish terrorists.

http://www.britishforcesinpalestine.org/attacks.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_insurgency_in_Palestine
http://www.britishforcesinpalestine.org/attacks/sergeants.html

It kind of sticks in the throat when I hear Israeli's talk of terrorists!

Especially when you read of this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre

BTW I am not anti-jewish far from it, but I think if you read the history of Palestine and the forced exodus, then you may understand why they feel aggrieved.

Wait a minute i live in london not the middle east so how does that make me lucky ? Dont try and link my disapproval with a council in the UK flying the Palestinian flag with the people of palestine . Lame ?

I think Jim made a good point.

Ok, I won't try and link your disapproval of a UK council flying the Palestinian flag with the people of Palestine. I'll let you do it.
I think it's just a case of someone with a flagpole trying to show a bit of support for people having the shit bombed out of them.

So, do you live in Tower Hamlets then, robcoupe?

I live 4 miles form MULBERRY square JIM CLENNELL .Just shows you dont know much about Tower Hamlets . With your reckoning then lets have the Syrian Flag next week followed by the Ukrainian and in week three the Iraq Flag . You are aware that over 1700 people have died in one single week in the Syrian civil war or do you just cherry pick ?

4 miles from Mulberry Square?... That could encompass lots of London mate, whereabouts exactly?

Why do i have to tell you my address and whats the relevance?

I wasn't asking for the address, just the rough area, 4 miles from anywhere in London can be a long way from another.... Hell I grew up in Custom House, (E16) totally different area from Stratford (E15)..

Again whats the relevance? .

Well mate the relevance is this: Never heard of MULBERRY square, you claim that by living within 4 miles of it, Jim knows nothing of Tower hamlets.... (Your words not mine), I am just curious, if it makes you any happier I lived in Throckmorton Road, E16, which is probably within 4 miles of Tower hamlets but isn't even remotely like it... So I am curious. basically do you live within the borough of Tower hamlets or not? Also where is MULBERRY Square? Never heard of it, googled it and same answer.

The tower hamlets council building is a stones throw away from canary wharf and about 100 yards from the blackwall tunnel and they own many building on site .Its behind the old FT printing press on the blackwall tunnel approach How do i know i have been there many times . Address is Tower Hamlets Council Town Hall Mulberry Place 5 Clove Crescent E14 2BG and yes there is a mulberry square . You lived in E16 so what and no i am not happier .

This is the Muslim Mayor of Tower Hamlets who ordered the flag to fly . Very colourfull past if you read the article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics...-with-Gaza.html

Calm down rob, I was only asking in case you had some actual reason for getting so angry... I hereby declare I know nothing about London or Tower Hamlets - what difference does that make? I don't want to know your address, but in answer to your question in the title of this thread - no, hopefully not only in London. Incidentally, I helped organise an Oxfam charity event in London for victims of the Syrian war, but I'm not sure that's relevant.

Ah, he's a Muslim. That explains it.

Well he was hardly going to be a bible thumping christian . Not only is he a muslim (not that a give a flying ) because if he had no religion i would feel the same but hes been thrown out of the labour party for his links to an islamic extremists group and vote rigging . So muslim or christian hes not a good character . My point Jim is you put one flag up you have to put them all up .I just like to add my friend from a couple of streets away who just happens to be muslim went to syria this time last year in a lorry convoy with humanitarian supplies for the refugee camp .

He's a politician, isn't he? Goes without saying...

Personally my sympathies are with the Palestinians stuck in the middle - I have nothing but contempt for Hamas. But I don't think flying their flag from a public building is in any way representative of the feelings of the people that council is supposed to represent.

I think it's called a gesture; this appalling ne'er do well that has got himself unfairly elected in Tower Hamlets by claiming he's going to help people (sounds very familiar) supports the Palestinians in Gaza and happens to have access to a flagpole and a flag. If it was a Hamas flag or a Nazi flag or a Shining Path flag then I can see why it would make people angry. But it's just the flag of a people who are currently in the news having a well-equipped modern army shell the crap out of their homes, hospitals, schools, everything. So, personally, I don't have a problem with a little show of support or awareness-raising, whatever. But if you want to get angry about it, go right ahead. Just don't expect everyone to agree.

Exactly. If our Council decides to fly a flag, I sincerely hope it's Israel's

Wasn't the catalyst for the recent escalation the abduction and murder of 3 young students?

I think that's a slight over-simplification, RK, but you knew that, right?

I don't think even you could argue that Israel's response was what could legitimately be termed proportionate and in any case there are plenty of reasons why what they are doing now will store up far more future problems for Israel. As far as I know nobody in this thread is suggesting that Hamas is anything other than a thinly-disguised terrorist organisation, yet to take the circumstances of what has been happening in Gaza over recent years so out of context is no more than convenient self-delusion.

If Israel want to shut down the tunnels from Gaza why don't they simply pour a load of concrete down them from their own end?
It would be somewhat less controversial than their current actions.

I suspect that they don't know where the ends are in Israeli territory... Hamas don't go out of their way to advertise them, until they use them.

I've nothing to add to the above except that it reminds me of this. I can't for the life of me recall where I was, other than that I haven't been out of the South East this week (damn, where did I leave my Aricept?) but I saw a guy riding a motorbike with a reasonably-large Palestinian flag, on a pole, strapped to the back. Made quite a visual statement.

Yup. I hope I'm not driving in front an Israeli.

Possibly, but I used the term catalyst deliberately. Palestinians, be them Hamas, Hamas splinter groups or someone not under their control abducted and murdered 3 students, thereby providing the Israelis with "justification" to escalate the situation. There is no doubt the tunnels are as much a goal as stopping missile launches.

It doesn't take someone with a History Honours Degree from Oxbridge to forecast that if you hit out at the Israelis there will be a very robust response. And traditionally those responses don't bode well for anyone under the bombs or in front of the guns, regardless of their status or affiliation.

The Israelis are unlikely to adopt a position of apologising for existing and accepting their citizens are legitimate targets for terrorist actions any time soon.

That's a bit more like it! You're absolutely right and the chances of Israel backing down in the face of condemnation - probably even by god himself - are around nil. The dreadful deaths of the 3 Israeli kids were utterly abhorrent, as was that of the Palestinian boy killed in revenge by Israelis. You used the term "catalyst", but "wildly out of proportion excuse" would fit too. But in the context of this discussion, I think it's ok for someone to fly a flag for a bit, even it's from a council flagpole.

Not sure I agree with you there, Jim: fly the flag to show your support, but *not* as a political statement on a public building.

The one is a personal statement; the other contains implicit endorsement of a political position. And as far as I can see at the moment, the only political position in the UK is 'I wish the beggars'd stop'.

There is No Solution that involves attacking Israel. After thousands of years of persecution culminating in the Nazi death camps; the homeless, nationless Jews, somewhat understandably vowed they would never let themselves become passive victims again, and would instead be aggressive in the defence of their nation. We turfed the the Palestinians out of their homeland and gave the land to the Jews to form that nation of Israel and they will absolutely never give it up. Hamas want to incite Israel into shelling them and in turn - other Arab nations into greater war against Israel, as they know that alone they can never hope to defeat Israel. This is highly unlikely as the Arab nations remember too well the bloody nose they recieved when they last went to war against Israel. They were comprehensively defeated by Israel within Six days
Flying a flag or not is irrelevant and will change nothing for the beleagured Palestinians.
The only solution is to talk and to acknowledge each others right to exist.
Everything else just ends with the murder of innocents.

My father in law reckons that there is a sort of conspiracy to achieve the above and that 'The West' wouldn't object to it as Israel crushing a few of their neighbours might smooth things out in the wider Middle East.

Your father-in-law is probably right Tim, as there is no doubt plenty people in "the West" and elsewhere, that would benefit from and be content to see that happen.

Neil, all I'm saying is that it doesn't matter very much and it's not worth getting one's underwear in a tizzy over. I'm not saying I approve of the action or that it's a right and proper thing to do over the headquarters of an elected body that hasn't given a mandate for it. I'm saying that if this fella has a flagpole and a flag and an opinion, it's not a huge surprise that the 3 things have combined, literally or metaphorically. It's not that much of a leap of imagination to see Boris pulling a similar stunt.

Also, I'm not as naive as perhaps Lego might think in terms of the effect the entire world's disapproval (with a few exceptions) might have on Israeli policy or it's execution thereof. I'm also reasonably well aware of the history of the region. On the other hand, the Israeli government emphatically does not speak for the entire nation.
And, regardless of plots to lure Israel into battering Gaza, there is simply no legitimacy for the creation of what Netanyahu astonishingly termed "telegenic dead Palestinians".

Actually we turfed the Israelites out of their homeland to give it to the Eastern European Jews who became the Israelis. The Palestinians are the jews who remained in Israel and who were forced by the Crusaders to convert to christianity and then in turn forced by the troops of Saladin to convert to islam. It is the usual result of the cancer of religion and politics on society. Hamas are without doubt terrorist scum who feed on the corpses of the people they claim to represent but Israel is the abused child become the abuser, seeking "lebensraum" by invading other lands and treating their populace as subhuman, creating ghettos which they have no compunction about liquidating at need.

Agreed.

The way there will ever be a stable status-quo in Gaza is for Hamas to be removed from governance.

To lighten things up a little, here's one from my Jewish mother in law.

What's the difference between a Jewish mother in law and Hamas? Sometimes, you can negotiate with Hamas...