Half of Belfast City Council’s chamber was left empty after a walk-out by Sinn Féin and other parties at City Hall over the education minister’s recent trip to Israel.

The dispute was over how the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) Lord Mayor Tracy Kelly handled an attempt by Sinn Féin to raise the recent visit by Paul Givan.

With 22 representatives in the 60-member council, Sinn Féin is the largest party at City Hall.

Councillors from the SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party), the Green Party and People Before Profit also left the chamber. This included the deputy Lord Mayor, Paul Doherty of the SDLP.

It took almost an hour to persuade all the councillors to return to the chamber.

During bizarre scenes, some of the Sinn Féin councillors suddenly resumed their seats during a vote on whether to pause proceedings for a short adjournment.

The DUP opposed the break but, with the help of the returning Sinn Féin councillors, the proposal was passed by 19 votes to 15

Twenty minutes later, after talks behind the scenes, the meeting resumed.

TUV (Traditional Unionist Voice) councillor Ron McDowell accused Sinn Féin of trying to “hijack” the meeting.

He said: “The Lord Mayor was absolutely right to intervene to prevent the chamber being misused in this way and to ensure council business continued in line with proper procedure and established democratic practice.

“The people of Belfast expect their council to deal with the business before it — not to become a stage for last-minute political ambushes and point-scoring.”

The deputy Lord Mayor, Paul Doherty, posted a video on X and said the walk-out was due to a member being “restricted” from speaking about Palestine and was “prevented” from making a proposal in the chamber.

“We sought clarity on process, that was shot down aswell.”

He said if the mayor is going to “shut down” a conversation about Palestine, “we’re shutting down the meeting”.

Doherty said the mayor was “silencing” the conversation to “protect her education minister from scrutiny”.

“We will always stand up for accountability, due process, and the right to speak on the matters of human rights,” he added.

After the meeting resumed, councillors voted in favour of flying the Palestinian flag at Belfast City Hall later this month.

The proposal, from Sinn Féin’s Ryan Murphy, was passed in spite of unionist opposition. by 41 votes to 15.

The flag is expected to be flown on November 29 as part of an international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Sinn Féin are now raising Givan’s visits to Israel again.

More to follow.