Lebanon’s flag was today raised by a Sydney council in support of the local Lebanese community, after months of bomb and missile attacks by Israel that have left thousands dead.
It comes as overnight the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and senior Hamas official Mohammed Deif (although he is presumed dead) for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the Israel-Gaza war.
“We stand in solidarity with our 55,000 Australian Lebanese people in Canterbury-Bankstown,” the LGA’s Mayor Bilal El-Hayek said in a Facebook post, after the flag was raised at two locations in Bankstown and Campsie this morning, coinciding with Lebanon’s national Independence Day.
“The Lebanese flag is flying high in our City today, in honour of its National Day of Independence.”
Councillors from the Canterbury-Bankstown Council voted unanimously on October 22 to fly the Lebanese flag and acknowledging the trauma felt by local people.
“The situation in Lebanon is heartbreaking and being felt throughout the community,” a Canterbury-Bankstown Council spokesperson told Central News.
“The community is shocked by the events and are concerned for family and loved ones living in the region.”
The motion was led by El-Hayek in the form of a Mayoral Minute, brought forward to council before being endorsed. In a statement he touched upon the pain the crisis had wrought among local Lebanese-Australians.
“My birthplace, and the birthplace of tens of thousands of residents in our City is burning… blasted by intense bombing raids that are both relentless and deadly,” El-Hayek wrote in the motion. “The devastation in and around the capital, Beirut, once described as the Paris of the Middle East is heartbreaking.
“The physical scars of the landscape pale in comparison to the thousands of lives lost and the physical and mental scars of those injured or left homeless.
“All lives matter, no matter the colour of your skin, your religious beliefs or your place of birth… The world must unite and demand an end to hostilities.”
Sydney’s Little Lebanon
From Fairuz’s powerful Arabic ballads occasionally blasting out of cars to lines of shops selling shawarma or chips with toum, the Canterbury-Bankstown area’s proud Lebanese Australian community is unmissable.
Yet, as the situation in the Middle East worsens with Israel’s regular bombing of Lebanon escalating and a state-induced famine in Gaza worsening, the community’s past jubilance has been replaced by a visible sense of unease.
Around 1.2 million people, a quarter of Lebanon’s population, have been forced to leave their homes say the UN, with almost 3,500 killed and over 14,000 injured according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
In Bankstown and surrounding areas, some people don keffiyehs, while Palestinian and Lebanese flags are a common sight from passing cars and tied to railings and fences. As trains arrive at several stations around Western Sydney on Sundays, the red and green colours of both flags often fill the platforms as people return home after a day protesting.
Adding to the mosaic of vibrant multiculturalism within the area, those with Lebanese ancestry are among the most well established communities in Australia. They have been among the largest ethnic groups in the Bankstown-Canterbury region since the 1970s, but their growing presence in NSW goes back even further to the 1880s, when the first migrants from the region arrived.
According to the latest 2021 census, the Bankstown-Canterbury LGA itself is home to more than 20 per cent of Australia’s Lebanese community, which numbers around a quarter of a million people.
Accordingly, the flying of the Lebanese flag coinciding with the National Day of Lebanon today (November 22), has been warmly welcomed by the community. It comes after the south-west Sydney council also unanimously voted to fly the Palestinian flag until a ceasefire is declared, becoming the first council in Australia to do so last year.
Lebanon’s flag has joined the Palestinian flag, outside Bankstown Library, which the council previously voted to raise in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Photo: Leo Chau.
Council calls for humanitarian aid
Contrasting many other government responses, the local south-west Sydney council has proactively led the way in supporting Lebanese and Palestinian Australian communities.
In Cumberland Council, despite locals with Lebanese ancestry making up the largest ancestry group at 13.3 per cent, various councillors objected to symbolic gestures acknowledging Lebanese or Palestinian suffering. Numerous councils across Sydney showed support for Australia’s Jewish community in the wake of the October 7 attack.
A Canterbury-Bankstown spokesperson said the council had voted to liaise with religious leaders and support them holding an interfaith prayer vigil on the day, and if required “hold our own candlelight vigil”.
With Lebanese-Australians coming from diverse religious groups, the vigil will be an opportunity for community members from different faiths to reflect upon and stand united against the attacks by Israel. The Lebanese-Australian community includes Muslims (45.1 per cent), Catholics (33.8 per cent) and Orthodox Christians (7.1 per cent), among many other religions according to data on those born in Lebanon within Australia’s 2021 Census.
The spokesperson added: “Council will also write to the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and NSW Premier Chris Minns, to stand with the innocent victims of Lebanon, and to increase financial funding and aid to a country facing a humanitarian crisis.”
Since October 7 last year the Federal Government’s total humanitarian assistance in the Middle East region totals $94.5 million, including for both Lebanon and Gaza according to DFAT figures. Contrastingly, the Australian Government has given over $1.5 billion to Ukraine, mostly in the form of military equipment, over the past two and-a-half years.
Main image: The flags of Lebanon, Australia and Palestine in front of Bankstown Library. Photo: Leo Chau
