Why were Israeli flags erected along Hastings' seafront?

Hastings residents woke up on 7 October to an unusual sight along the seafront: Israeli flags stretching for nearly a mile from Hastings Pier to the Marina in St Leonards, near the town's mosque. 

The act was bizarre, but the timing was not lost on residents of the southern coastal English town.

The flags appeared on the second anniversary of 7 October attacks on southern Israel that triggered Israel's genocide in Gaza that has killed and wounded more than 245,000 Palestinians.

CCTV footage recorded between 1:20am and 6am appeared to show a figure moving along the promenade, stringing the flags from lamppost to lamppost.

By sunrise, the display was complete, and the scale of the act quickly became the subject of widespread discussion.

Within the space of a few hours, residents flooded local councillors with messages, asking how such a display could have been allowed to happen, or whether it had been approved by any authority.

By the time Councillor Yunis Smith, of Hastings Green Party, reached the seafront, the flags were already gone. They had not been removed by police or council officers, but by local residents themselves.

"By the time I got down here, the flags were gone," Smith told Middle East Eye.

"Residents were immediately out there. And I think this is a frustration that's built up in the town."

 

 

 

 

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Geno Dauti, whose son was among the first to climb a lamppost to remove one of the flags, describing the act as a moral imperative.

"It wasn't nice to see flags of a regime that has committed so many atrocities," Dauti said.

"When history looks back at this with shame, at least I can tell my children and grandchildren that I tried my best."

The lampposts along Hastings' seafront are the responsibility of East Sussex County Council, not Hastings Borough Council, meaning any authorisation for public displays rests with the county authority.

'The town was definitely displeased with the flags being up there'

- Yunis Smith, Hastings councillor

In practice, enforcement often relies on police support to remove unauthorised flags from high points, a process that can be slow and resource-intensive.

This was not the first time Israeli flags had appeared along the promenade. A previous incident involved a single flag placed above a St George's Cross, which generated significant backlash and online attention.

In both cases, residents felt action from local authorities was insufficient.

Prior to that, St George's Crosses had been put up illegally along the same stretch. Council officers tasked with removing them were, according to Smith, "abused and threatened," leaving authorities in what he described as "a stalemate".

This time, however, the display of Israeli flags was far larger, covering one of the town's most visible public spaces and prompting residents to act first, without waiting for police or council officers to intervene.

"The town was definitely displeased with the flags being up there," Smith said. "It built into a bigger issue the longer the day went on. They weren't council approved. No permission was requested, and we weren’t notified in any way, shape or form."

For Aminah, a Hastings resident of both Palestinian and English heritage, footage of the flags triggered a visceral response.

"I thought it was AI [artificial intelligence]. I couldn’t believe it," she said. "I felt sick in my stomach because here I finally felt safe - and that flag took that away."

Aminah had grown up under occupation in Hebron, Palestine, and moved to Hastings years ago seeking a safer environment. She said that in other parts of the UK she had experienced Islamophobic abuse for wearing her hijab, but Hastings had felt different. The town offered a community she described as kind and supportive.

"That flag, for me, is on jeeps, checkpoints, places where I was terrified," she said. Seeing the flag flying over her new home - the place she’d described as a "happy bubble" - felt like an intrusion.

'It really felt like a deliberate tactic to agitate local people and initiate propaganda'

- Krissie Nicholson, Hastings resident

Later that day, Sussex Friends of Israel claimed responsibility for the stunt on social media. Stewart Ide, a local man, also gave an interview to GB News, acknowledging that he organised the display.

MEE reached out to Ide for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.

Later, MEE encountered Ide at a Sukkot event organised by Hastings Jews for Justice. He had not been invited but attended, confronting community members directly. 

When asked about his motivations for putting up the flags, Ide said: "Two years ago there was a lot of people murdered."

When pressed on whether he had sought council approval, he walked away without answering. 

One guy with a ladder'

For many in Hastings, a town with a long history of sanctuary and community organising, the stunt was less a show of solidarity with Israeli civilians than a deliberate provocation.

"It really felt like a deliberate tactic to agitate local people and initiate propaganda," said Krissie Nicholson, a local community organiser who runs the Safe Havens initiative.

"I find it deeply saddening that a crisis on the scale of what’s happening in the Gaza is being used this way for political gain."

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Nicholson said the display was entirely out of step with life on the ground, where interfaith events and local solidarity networks are woven into the fabric of the town.

"People from different backgrounds, including Muslim people, Jewish people, people of no faith, want to come together and learn from each other," she said. "This is not going to divide us - it's going to make the community stronger."

Members of the town's Jewish community echoed that sentiment.

Katy Colley, from Hastings Jews for Justice, said the stunt was the work of a tiny number of people seeking to provoke a reaction, rather than a reflection of the wider community.

"It's a very small number of people aggressively targeting our town because of our amazing solidarity with Palestine,” she said.

"When the council formalised the town's friendship link with Al Mawasi in Gaza, that's when this aggravation started. The reality is that this was literally the action of one guy with a ladder. It's obnoxious, it’s bullying, and it doesn't reflect the broader community."

Colley emphasised that the stunt was being used by its organisers to conflate Jewish identity with support for the Israeli state, a link that Hastings’ Jewish community rejects.

"We're here to say Israel does not represent us, does not speak for us," she said. "It certainly is not committing atrocities in our name."

For other residents, the incident was another reminder of rising nationalism hitting Britain's streets.

"There's so much inflammatory stuff going on with flags," said Robert, a local resident.

"I'd rather not see them at all," he added.

Similar debates have played out in other UK towns over the past few months, but Hastings’ reputation as a sanctuary town made the stunt stand out. 

For years, the borough has nurtured refugee support networks, interfaith coalitions, and community events. It is also a dispersal area and a key landing point for small boat crossings from the English Channel.

For Hastings, the battle isn't about fabric hanging from poles. 

"Our community is much stronger than any sort of fantasy far-right attempts to divide it," said Smith. "The act doesn't reflect the identity of the town, and it undermines a lot of the community cohesion work we do."

"We are peace-loving people," Nicholson said. "We're a diverse community. Hastings has always been a place of sanctuary. We're not going to let that change."