A senior Greenwich councillor fought back tears while discussing the conflict in Gaza after the town hall held a minute’s silence for the thousands of victims of the conflict in the region.
Adel Khaireh, the cabinet member for communities, became emotional after being asked what the council could do to support families affected by the killings in the Middle East.
There was tight security after the past two full council meetings were disrupted by protests.
Last month protesters tried to hold a minutes’ silence for the victims in Gaza from the public gallery. While they were supported by some councillors, the borough’s ceremonial mayor, Dominic Mbang, suspended the meeting amid angry scenes.
While on Wednesday night the meeting began with a minute’s silence for those killed in Gaza and in the Hamas attacks of October 7, protesters boycotted this and held their own minute’s silence outside Woolwich Town Hall instead, refusing to enter the meeting.
Majella Anning, a Labour councillor for Creekside, said that relatives of people in the borough were being killed in Israeli attacks. Those killed included six-year-old Hind Rajab, whose call to emergency services after apparently coming under fire from an Israeli tank was released by the Red Crescent.
“We are all looking for ways to empathise with the communities who have relatives in Gaza,” Anning said.
“According to the UNHCR, 1 per cent of all Gazan children are now dead. Gaza is literally a graveyard of children, and the walls of that graveyard have now reached the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
“We should be doing more to reach out to those particular communities who’ve had losses, those particular families, but specifically to show that we empathise and care because the situation is now becoming a daily massacre.”
Khaireh said that the council was “working closely with faith leaders and all community leaders across the borough”.
“I remember the time the far right came outside the [Plumstead] mosque in large numbers and you had faith leaders from the Jewish community, from the Sikh community, from the Hindu community, from every community you can think of outside the doors protecting the mosque. They see this borough as united and no hate is going to divide us.”
Khaireh’s voice cracked as he spoke about seeing images from Gaza on TV. “I talk to members about this on a daily basis. I’m a father of children, seeing children dying with my own eyes. It hurts. It really does hurt,” he said.
“But I can tell you we are united here locally and we will continue praying for peace.”
Fellow councillors gave Khaireh a standing ovation after he spoke.
Khaireh’s speech came after chaotic scenes in the House of Commons during a debate on a ceasefire in Gaza. Nearly 30,000 people have now died in Israeli attacks on the territory, which followed the Hamas attacks in Israel in which over 1,100 people died and 250 taken hostage.
Labour councils across London have come under pressure to demand a ceasefire since the conflict began, with protests affecting meetings in Camden, Hackney, Lambeth and Lewisham as well as Greenwich.
“It is the people in Gaza who are facing genocide not Israel, the council’s minute’s silence whitewashed this,” Greenwich Palestine Action said in a statement issued on Thursday.
“This was totally unacceptable, we could not support a council who will not call for a ceasefire and cannot even hold a meaningful minute’s silence for the thousands killed in the last five months.
“We held a vigil outside the town hall and our own silence for those killed which we invited councillors to join but none did.”
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