THE Palestinian flag flew from Dundee’s Caird Hall as delegates gathered for the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) today.

STUC president Mike Arnott explained the flag represents Dundee’s twinning arrangement with Nablus in the West Bank, which dating back to 1980 was the second twinning with a Palestinian city anywhere in Britain.

“The trade union movement has a proud record of solidarity with Palestine,” Mr Arnott told conference in his opening address. “STUC campaigning for BDS” (the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against the Israeli occupation) “is widely recognised.”

Just a few weeks ago a second Dundee fire engine was donated to Palestine amid the brutal Israeli invasion of Gaza and heightened wave of terror in the West Bank, and the STUC president paid tribute to the solidarity of the Fire Brigades Union and local FBU veteran Jim Malone, who drove the first fire engine from Dundee to Nablus, where it is still in use, in 2011.