MORE people in Britain oppose government buildings flying the Israel flag than support it, according to new polling.
The snap YouGov survey of 2453 adults across the UK, conducted on October 11, found that three in ten (31%) people support government buildings flying the Israeli flag.
Just 11% “strongly support” flying the Israeli flag, while one in five (20%) “somewhat support” it.
On the other end of the scale, four in ten UK adults (39%) opposed flying the Israeli flag on government buildings. One in five (19%) “strongly oppose” the idea, while a similar number (20%) “somewhat oppose” it.
The largest group, 29%, said they did not know how they felt. With this group removed, roughly 55% of Brits oppose flying the Israeli flag on government buildings.
The news comes as the Scottish Conservatives sparked a row after the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB) declined to fly the Israeli flag at Holyrood.
The SPCB, which is made up of one MSP from each of the four main parties and presiding officer Alison Johnstone, said there was a “majority view” that the Tories' request to display the Israeli flag should be rejected.
Scots Tory MSPs raged against the refusal to fly an Israeli flag at Holyrood, calling it “shameful”. But the YouGov polling suggests the public is not on their side.
The UK Government has displayed the Israeli flag on its buildings, including 10 Downing Street and Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh.
It comes after Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on Israel from Gaza over the weekend, killing and kidnapping civilians. On Wednesday, Israeli authorities said the death toll had reached 1200 people, with at least 2700 more wounded.
In response, Israel launched a siege of Gaza, cutting off electricity, water, and fuel supplies to 2.2 million people, and bombing targets within the region. Palestinian authorities say at least 900 of their people have been killed, with nearly 4500 others injured.
The UN has said there is “clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed” by both sides since the Hamas attack on Saturday.
The EU’s top diplomat, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, has also condemned both sides of the war, saying that Israel’s siege of Gaza “is against international law”.
The deputy chair of the Tory Party, Lee Anderson MP, said that Borrell’s comments were a reason “to be glad we left the EU”.
