Balanced gesture

Does the hoisting of the Palestinian flag above Glasgow City Chambers do anything to reflect how people really feel about the conflict in Gaza (your report, 
9 August)? The most sensible view I’ve heard came from a lady on a radio phone-in programme, that both the Israeli and the Palestinian flags should be flown at half-mast. That would help divest the gesture of political controversy and help stress the humanitarian concerns of many people in the city and throughout Scotland.

It was significant that a spokesman for the Israeli government stressed that the green flag of Hamas, not the Palestinian flag, flies in Gaza. The gesture from Glasgow City Council is wrong because it refuses to recognise the suffering on the Israeli side, too. More than that, it does not see that the actions of Israel can be explained not in terms of attempted “genocide”; it is largely because it faces frequent threats not just to its territory but to its very existence.

Glasgow City Council could lend itself some credibility if it looked to the situation in Syria and Iraq, and issued an unequivocal statement condemning terrorism from whatever source. During the Commonwealth Games, Scotland’s largest city gained a worthy reputation for competence, friendliness and sportsmanship. It now needs to develop one for balanced judgment.

Bob Taylor

Shiel Court
Glenrothes, Fife