Tower Hamlets council will start removing Palestinian flags from its buildings, the borough’s mayor has announced.
Lutfur Rahman said flags will be removed from council-owned infrastructure in a statement issued on Wednesday night.
It comes after UK Lawyers for Israel threatened to pursue a legal case against Tower Hamlets unless it removed the flags.
The lawyers wrote to the council warning many Jewish residents in the borough were distressed by flags hung in the streets and that some were so concerned they were looking to move out of the borough.
In an email seen by the Standard lawyers, warned large Palestinian flags on lampposts, as well as posters and stickers with inflammatory content, “intimidate Jewish people and may encourage violence against them”.
However Mr Rahman denied they were “symbols of division” and claimed they had been used to “further the Islamophobic narrative”.Mr Rahman announced he had decided to begin removing the flags following advice from the council’s chief executive Stephen Halsey.
He said: “I understand that those who have erected these flags across the borough have done so in line with our strong tradition of solidarity and I reject that they are symbols of division.
“They are symbols of solidarity and sympathy for those enduring extreme suffering in Gaza. We must not forget that over 30,000 people have now been killed, 70 per cent of whom are women and children.
“The flags certainly had an impact and made residents’ views clear.”
He added: “Although these flags are an understandable expression of solidarity, I now feel they are being used to unfairly attack the people of the borough and further the Islamophobic narrative.”
Tower Hamlets has the largest Muslim population of any local authority area in the UK at 39.9 per cent according to the 2021 census.
Mr Rahman warned a recent rise in Islamophobia had made Tower Hamlets a target but said he was also “alert to a rise in antisemitism and other forms of racism”.
Last month former London minister Paul Scully was forced to apologise after he described parts of Tower Hamlets as a “no-go” area — sparking outrage from MPs and residents.
It followed Lee Anderson being stripped of the Tory whip for claiming that “Islamists” had “got control” of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Tower Hamlets council is currently facing a second Government probe in a decade amid concerns about how the borough is being run.
The Government said it is uneasy about a range of issues in the local authority, including the "independence" of the returning officer, who oversees elections, and the expansion of Mr Rahman's office.
Inspectors have also been asked to look at scrutiny, financial planning, staff appointments and grant allocations.
