Palestinians wait to cross the Qalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, to attend the first Friday prayers in al-Aqsa mosque, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Friday, April 16, 2021
IN A landmark council vote on Monday night, Dundee became the first Scottish city to officially recognise the State of Palestine.
A motion submitted by Dundee Trade Union Council and the Dundee-Nablus Twinning Association was passed overwhelmingly, more than 40 years after Dundee was the first British city to twin with the Palestinian city in 1980.
Councillors agreed to recognise the Palestine as a symbolic step to put pressure on the British government to implement a 2014 House of Commons resolution that called for its recognition.
Palestine’s ambassador in Britain Husam Zomlot spoke to councillors during the meeting, thanking council members and Dundee’s trade union movement for their support by filing the motion.
He said the Dundee vote showed that the Palestinian people “are supported everywhere: by grassroots movements, rights groups, unions, ordinary citizens,” adding: “Recognition of Palestinian statehood by you here today would, I hope, mark the beginning of the end of one of the world’s longest-lasting and most egregious injustices.”
MICAELA TRACEY-RAMOS explains how Britain’s largest union is putting pressure on the British government to recognise the Palestinian state and end its complicity with Israel’s murderous actions
