The City Council of Providence, Rhode Island, raised the Palestinian flag at City Hall on Friday amid dueling demonstrations.
The council announced the decision to raise the flag on X Wednesday, one day before Palestinians and their supporters observed Nakba Day, which marks the displacement of Palestinians upon Israel’s establishment. City Council President Rachel Miller said the flag represents “a group of people in our community who are very often silenced, very often not allowed to speak.”
Miller said Palestinians were subject to a genocide — a claim Israel rejects — and that relatives of hers were killed in the Holocaust, which motivated the decision.
“I am a person of Jewish heritage,” she said, according to the local ABC affiliate. “I lost a good portion of my extended family in the Holocaust. Because of that I believe it’s my obligation to stand together with people who are facing a genocide.”
The flag-raising was announced on the same day that the city’s Jewish Mayor Brett Smiley returned from a trip to Israel. Smiley said the City Council is a separate branch of government and he couldn’t overrule the decision, but that he was “disheartened” by the timing of the announcement upon his return from his trip.
“There are thousands of Jews in our Capital City, and each has their own views and connection to Israel. There are also Palestinians in our community, and they likewise have a unique identity and perspective on this complex issue,” Smiley said, according to WPRI, a local station. “Those of us in Providence cannot solve this centuries-old conflict. But what we can do – what we must do – is lead with compassion, with empathy and with hope.”
Jewish Voice for Peace Rhode Island participated in the flag-raising ceremony, while the Rhode Island Coalition for Israel held a nearby protest against it. The event coincided with the minor Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer, and the pro-Israel activists blasted traditional Jewish music about the return of exiles to Jerusalem over the crowd.
“At a time when symbols have the power to divide or unite, we believe our city leaders should work to foster understanding of both Jewish and Palestinian narratives,” the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, which also opposed the flag-raising, said in a statement. “That includes affirming Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people, while also recognizing the human experiences of Palestinians.”
The group said that pro-Palestinian demonstrations “have included rhetoric that is not just critical of Israeli policy, but explicitly opposes the existence of the State of Israel. In some cases, this rhetoric has crossed into antisemitism.”
Lex Rofeberg, a rabbi who spoke at the pro-flag-raising ceremony, said, “What might happen is that you say there was a group of Jewish protesters protesting against pro-Palestine folks celebrating the Palestinian flag. That’s not what’s happening here.” He added that enough Jews were in the pro-flag group “to make multiple minyanim,” or 10-person prayer quorums.
Providence City Council spokesperson Marc Boyd said the flag was one of many the council has flown. It will remain up for the day on Friday.
“Just in the past couple of months the city has flown the Dominican flag, the Irish flag, the Italian flag, the Armenian flag, and the Israeli flag,” Boyd told WPRI. “Like those examples, this idea came to us from the community as part of a request to honor the important role Palestinian-Americans play in the fabric of our beautifully diverse city.”
Providence isn’t the only American city to have flown the flag. Last November, the city hall of Hoboken, New Jersey also raised the Palestinian flag despite controversy. That same month, a Palestinian flag-raising ceremony at the city hall of Regina, a Canadian city, was abruptly cancelled.
