US firm cancels visit over Glasgow Palestine flag

PLANS that would have seen 600 American visitors come to Glasgow have been cancelled due to Glasgow City Council’s decision to fly the Palestinian flag over the City Chambers.

A Palestinian flag flown over Glasgow City Chambers has led to the cancellation of a visit from a Fortune 500 firm based in the US. Picture: AP

The trip, organised by an American special event company ranked among the Fortune 500, was to be a reward for 600 salesmen and women and their spouses.

However, the vice president of the firm cancelled the trip after learning of the city council’s decision to fly the Palestinian flag in a show of solidarity with Gaza civilians, according to the Daily Express.

In a letter to Glasgow’s Lord Provost, the vice president explained his decision, saying: “We were scheduling six days in Glasgow, three for business and three for leisure time. Having read your statement endorsing Hamas and its leadership due to the number of Muslims in your city, I have decided to cancel plans for our trip. We are a Fortune 500 company, so costs were really not a serious consideration, location was. Hopefully the Muslim population that you so sincerely endorse will have the spending power of the very people you have chased away so well.”

Councillor Archie Graham responded to the company by saying: “Glasgow utterly abhors and rejects any forms of discrimination, inluding anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.”

The vice president of the firm, which has not been named, said he would not be reversing his decision for the company’s employees not to visit Glasgow.