City raising an Israeli flag causes fuss and fury at Coral Gables City HallPolitical Cortadito

Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago thought he’d raise a flag. Instead, he raised eyebrows. And tempers.

At next week’s city commission meeting, expect a little political kabuki over an idea that already sparked plenty of drama: raising the Israeli flag at City Hall to mark the anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack, where more than 1,200 people were killed and 200 were taken hostage.

Lago already proposed the gesture at the first meeting in September, but he had to defer the plan after he got some unexpected resistance from the newest commissioner, Richard Lara, who dared to go against the mayor’s wishes. Lara wasn’t buying the symbolism and there was plenty of blowback from residents, as well.

Coral Gables has shown support for Israel before. After the 2023 attacks, the city lit up the building in blue and white and hosted a demonstration of solidarity with the local Jewish community. Resolutions were passed. Hands were held. No drama.

But raising a flag at City Hall? That’s different. It’s a more public, visible — political. And people noticed.

The city should not recognize the Israeli victims without also recognizing the Palestinian victims, said Jay Shahadeh, who lives on North Greenway Drive. He said the message was: “If the victims look like me or if they look like my children, it doesn’t matter.”

Some residents questioned whether City Hall is the place for these kinds of international gestures. Others warned about opening the door to every other foreign conflict and flag — Palestinian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Cuban, you name it. If we fly one, are we ready to fly them all?

“City Hall is supposed to be welcoming to all,” said Sadia Raja, a pharmacist who spoke at the Sept. 10 meeting. “It sends a message that the city is taking sides in a foreign dispute. All suffering and death should be acknowledged, not just one side.”

The only person who spoke in favor of the flag raising was South Miami Mayor Javier Fernández, who was there as a lobbyist on a land use issue, but just decided to chime in because he felt the need to support Lago on this. Fernandez was also in Israel for a week in July with a delegation of other electeds from across Florida, including Sen. Alexis Calatayud and State Rep. Vicky Lopez. They met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who might be taking a break from peddling his sleep aid, and the families of some of the hostages and former hostages, Fernandez said.

“We met with Israelis, Christians, Jews, Palestinians, Islamists and Muslims,” Fernandez told Political Cortadito this week.

And, in fact, he liked Lago’s idea about raising the Israeli flag so much, he brought it to his own South Miami commission, which passed a similar item on Sept. 16 unanimously, to commemorate the Oct. 7 mass killing.

But the timing is insane. Every week, it seems, another country or international body is calling out Israel for what it’s doing in Gaza and the West Bank. From the streets of London and Paris to the chambers of the U.N. and the Hague, the tide of global opinion is turning — and fast. What used to be whispered is now being shouted: that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is not just “self-defense” — it’s oppression, occupation, and has even been called genocide. Governments in the Global South, European parliaments, human rights groups, even some Jewish organizations — they’re lining up to condemn what’s happening.

And Lago is doubling down? What’s in it for him? Is he seeking some group’s backing in his ambitions for higher office? Everybody knows that he wants to run for Miami-Dade mayor. Is he making a move for the Jewish vote?

Commissioner Lara said the quiet part out loud: The city shouldn’t be in the business of picking sides in global conflicts, especially when those sides divide the people who live here.

Wow. That came out of his mouth?

So L’Ego deferred, promising “more community input,” which is code for “more time to get people to convince Lara.”

Source told Ladra that people tried to convince Lago to drop this flag thing. They appealed to him on several levels.

This is a city that celebrates its international ties with the “Flags on Ponce” program, where national flags flutter along Miracle Mile. But that’s about cultural heritage and global presence — not geopolitics.

There’s a big difference between flying the flag of your parents’ homeland during carnival and raising the Israeli flag to commemorate a war that’s still going on. This isn’t about being pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. It’s about what City Hall should represent. And whether the dais is the right place to wage symbolic battles with real-world consequences.

Flying a foreign flag, especially one tied to an ongoing and deeply divisive international conflict, might not be the unifying move Lago says he wants. In fact, it might do the opposite.

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