Luton Town Hall sparks fiery clash after waving Palestinian flag: ‘Poses NO threat to Jewish people!’
The decision by Luton Town Hall to fly the Palestinian flag as part of a charity fundraiser has sparked a fiery row on GB News, as host Michelle Dewberry called out the offence the move may cause to Jewish residents of the town.
This comes as the Mayor of Luton, Cllr Mohammad Yaqub Hanif, hosted a charity Iftar at the Town Hall on Sunday to raise funds for the Medical Aid for Palestinians charity.
As part of the fundraising event, the Palestinian flag was raised at the Town Hall for 24 hours, to mark their support for the nation.
Praising the success of the fundraiser, Councillor Hanif said in a statement that it was a “testament” to “help alleviate the suffering of those caught up in the awful conflict in Gaza”.
He added: “The Palestinian flag was flown from the town hall to mark the charity event and in solidarity with all those impacted by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
Reacting to the move on Dewbs and Co, host Michelle Dewberry expressed sympathy for the Jewish community in Luton and said the flag may be seen as “intimidatory” to those living in the town.
Political Commentator James Schneider said the flag is “not intimidatory”, and added that as a Jewish man himself, it does “not offend him”.
Michelle hit back at Schneider and argued that it “may not be intimidatory to you”, but “other people might be”.
Schneider claimed that people “don’t have a right to be incorrectly offended”, comparing the flying of the flag to “someone having a flower pot even though I’ve said I don’t like flower pots.”
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Michelle slammed Schneider’s remark and said his comparison is “disingenuous” , to which he claimed the Palestinian flag “poses no threat to Jewish people”.
Schneider explained: “If you are an Israeli supremacist who wishes to see the ethnic cleansing, whose goal is annexation, whose method is ethnic cleansing and has excuses, self-determination is self-defence, then okay, fine, you won’t like it.
“But we don’t have to kowtow to supremacism. It’s a flag that represents a people, that’s fine.”
Michelle disagreed with Schneider, responding: “Yeah, but the flip side of that will be that some people will see this as a Islamist supremacy, if you like. Sitting there, saying we’ve managed to get this flag.”
Schneider hit back, claiming: “The flag of Palestine is not a supremacist flag. It isn’t saying that only Palestinian people can exist in the world, it’s not saying that everybody has to be Muslim.
“Palestine is a multi confessional people anyway. There are there are Christian Palestinians, there were Jewish Palestinians. I mean, there are there are those of all faiths and none.”
In a statement, Councillor Hazel Simmons, Leader of Luton Council said: “We are absolutely horrified at the killing and suffering and share the deep anger and upset being felt across our communities at what is taking place in front of our eyes. Communities across the town are appalled at what they are seeing as it is absolutely horrific and inhumane.
“The messages we have heard from Luton’s communities is clear – our town wants an immediate ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages and the immediate end of and withdrawal of settlements from the West Bank.
“The strongest message we can send is a united voice from Luton demanding an end to the violence and suffering of so many innocent people.”