Darebin will keep Palestinian flag – at least for now

Darebin City Council has voted to keep the Palestinian flag flying outside its main council chamber in Preston – but only until a new flag policy is formally adopted next month.

The council has flown the flag for more than two years, but a special meeting was called on Tuesday afternoon to determine whether to keep it. However, the council deferred the decision on whether it should continue to fly until a new council policy is formally adopted in March.

The decision means the flag will continue to fly alongside the Australian, Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander flags for at least another month at the council which covers Preston, Northcote, Thornbury and Reservoir.

The decision follows an urgent meeting called in late December following the Bondi terrorist attack, where councillors were asked by chief executive Anne Howard to take the flag down and replace it with a “peace flag”, in part because Darebin staff had been receiving complaints from distressed locals opposed to the flag after the mass shooting.

But councillors did not agree to the “peace flag” suggestion at both December’s and on Tuesday’s meetings, when they decided to wait for a formal policy due next month on when and for how long different flags can fly.

“I believe this motion balances our responsibilities, staff and community safety, sound governance and genuinely listening to the community. It is about completing a process responsibly and transparently,” said Greens councillor Julie O’Brien, who forwarded the motion to delay action until March.

The council has received more than 500 submissions through a formal consultation process launched in mid-January, the meeting heard. Labor councillor Connie Boglis, the sole vote against the deferral, noted that the majority of those submissions asked for the flag to be removed.

“Our role is to listen. Our role is to respond to this feedback and not further inflate conflicts into our neighbourhoods, workplaces and public spaces,” Boglis said. She argued that the council should focus on “rubbish, rates and roundabouts” rather than acting as a “mini United Nations”.

However, O’Brien defended the council’s involvement in broader geopolitical issues.

“We are not just about rates, roads and rubbish,” she said. “There is so much more to being part of a community, and especially a community like Darebin with a huge heart and open arms for communities from all around the world.”

Greens councillor Ruth Jelley, who seconded the motion, said the council’s initial response to community complaints following the Bondi atrocity had been “too reactive” in calling for a meeting to discuss the flag.

“It’s deeply damaging to conflate support for Palestine with hate-filled ideology,” Jelley said, though she acknowledged that some residents felt a “sense of fear” when they saw the flag.

In the early months of Israel’s war on Gaza, Victorian councils including Darebin, Merri-bek and Dandenong voted to fly the Palestinian flags at council properties as part of wider Pro-Palestine motions.

Dandenong and Maribyrnong councils only flew the Palestinian flag for a short period of time.

Merri-bek flew the flag until a ceasefire in early 2025, but councillors voted again in September last year to fly it again indefinitely outside its Coburg Town Hall, where it remains.

Some councils adopted motions but did not go as far as flying flags, including Hume, Wyndham, Yarra, Brimbank and Banyule. Some adopted bans on councils having contracts with “companies that support Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine or profit from it”.

In response, groups like the Jewish Community Council of Victoria stated that many residents felt “anxious, afraid and angry”, arguing that councillors were overstepping their local mandates to engage in “anti-Israel foreign policy romps”.

Melbourne council areas with large Jewish populations have also passed motions and made public statements in solidarity with their communities, but did not include calls for a ceasefire.

In the wake of the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel, Stonnington Council passed a motion in October committing to illuminating the Malvern and Prahran town halls in the blue and white of the Israeli flag for a week.

Merri-bek councillor Oscar Yildiz said he and his family had received death threats after he voted against his council’s ceasefire motion.

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