Pro-Palestinian protesters halt council meeting

the banner unveield at derry council by pro palestine protestorsYouTube

Wednesday's meeting at the Guildhall in Londonderry was suspended following the protest

Police are investigating how pro-Palestinian protestors - some with their faces covered - disrupted a council meeting in Londonderry.

The demonstrators held up a banner saying: "Expel the Israeli ambassador."

The S letters on it were written like the symbol of the SS, a Nazi military unit that ran concentration and death camps and killed millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

The protesters wanted the council to implement a boycott of Israeli goods.

Some unionists on Derry and Strabane District Council condemned the protest as antisemitic after the incident at the Guildhall on Wednesday evening.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) councillor Niree McMorris said she and her colleagues felt "intimidated" by the protestors and were "frozen to their seats".

'Colleague crying beside me'

"People started coming in from all doors, doors that I may add are private and they shouldn't have had access to," she told the BBC's The North West Today.

"I don't know how people were able to access them and get in. It was unacceptable - there was shouting and it was absolute chaos.

"It was frightening - I had a colleague who was crying beside me and didn't know what to do."

Niree McMorris has questioned the level of security at the council meeting

The mayor, Sinn Féin's Patricia Logue, suspended the meeting early and said the protest had left some staff "unnerved".

She had asked those protestors who had covered their faces to "take down their masks in the interests of openness".

In a statement issued on Thursday, Sinn Féin said it was "opposed to all forms of hatred and discrimination, including racism, sectarianism, homophobia and antisemitism.

"It has no place in our society," said the party.

Catherine Hutton, of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was due to address the meeting at the time and told councillors that her campaign group was against antisemitism in any form.

Speaking to BBC News NI about the banner, Ms Hutton said it "does not have anything to do with us".

She said that while she agrees with the statement calling for expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, she "does not agree with the Nazi insignias" and that her group is "against all sorts of discrimination".

Ms Hutton added that she had asked for the banner to be removed and for anyone wearing masks to take them off "because it was inappropriate".

'A peaceful act'

Earlier a pro-Palestinian protest had taken place outside the Guildhall.

People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin described what happened in the council chamber as a "side issue".

"There is absolutely nothing antisemitic about a banner that says: 'Expel the Israeli ambassador'," he said.

Shaun Harkin says there should be more protests against the Israel-Gaza war

Asked why some of those who unfurled it had their faces covered, he said he would encourage people not to wear masks.

He added: "There was over 100 people at the [earlier] protest yesterday. I think it was great that it happened.

"I don't think there should be business as usual when there is a genocidal war going on.

"This was a peaceful act of civil disobedience. I think there needs to be protests like this happening right across this island."

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was investigating whether any offences had been committed during the incident inside the Guildhall.

A Derry City and Strabane District council spokeswoman said "a grouping" had entered the public gallery and council had suspended standing orders, with the meeting being subsequently adjourned.

Some political parties and campaign groups across the island have called for Israel's ambassador to Ireland to be expelled following the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

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