(FeaturedNews.com) – On Monday, officials in the Massachusetts town North Andover approved a permit that would allow for the Palestinian flag to be raised on a public flagpole in the North Andover Town Common.
According to a report from Boston 25 News, the Palestinian flag was originally raised on Tuesday and will continue to fly on the public flagpole until Dec. 7. On Monday night, residents attended a rescheduled board meeting concerning the raising of the flag.
One of the residents in attendance, Salma Boulal, argued that if Israel had been given the right to raise its flag in the North Andover common, then the same right should be given to Palestine.
In order to ensure that the order would be upheld, there was a high number of police officers present at the meeting.
Melissa Rodrigues, the town manager, noted that an application to fly the flag had first been submitted on Oct. 16 only a few hours after town officials had agreed on a policy change on flying flags. Prior to the new rules, the policy gave town residents the right to apply for a flag to be flown on the town’s flagpole.
Rodriguez pointed out that the application led to the flag being seen as a public forum, and under the new policy the subject of the flag cannot be considered even when looking at an application that was submitted before the policy change.
The new policy limits the flagpole’s use to statements of governmental speech and other culture-related flags will no longer be allowed there.
Copyright 2023, FeaturedNews.com
