Israel-Hamas conflict: No condolence books, Israeli lighting, or flags for major Northern Irish public buildings

​Belfast City Council and Derry City and Strabane District Council said they have not been asked to open books of public mourning.

In Belfast, books of condolence have been opened 10 times in the last three years, including in May 2022 in response to a single Palestinian death: that of TV reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead by Israeli forces while covering a story.

In May 2021, the council in Londonderry opened a book to “the innocent victims caught up in the most intense period of Israeli-Palestinian violence in years,” according to the Derry Journal.

In addition, Belfast City Council says it cannot light up the city hall in Israeli colours for at least the next 10 days.

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has advised government buildings in the UK to illuminate themselves in the blue-and-white colours of the Jewish state’s national flag, and to fly the flag itself, in solidarity with its citizens after the Hamas attack.

Whilst a request for Israeli lighting has been received by Belfast council, it will need to be brought before the next meeting of the council’s strategic policy and resources committee for a decision – and it doesn’t meet until Friday, October 20.

Derry City and Strabane council said it has received no request for special lighting.

The Stormont Assembly likewise told the News Letter yesterday that it had received no such request.

Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Office – the most direct representative of Rishi Sunak’s government in NI – cannot fly the Israeli flag by dint of the fact it now occupies a rented building in Belfast city centre, instead of its old publicly owned headquarters in Stormont.

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• Belfast-based Palestine campaigner calls Hamas incursion into Israel 'a counter-attack'