Civil Servants have resisted Downing Street’s orders to fly an Israeli flag from Government buildings because it was deemed as “taking sides”.
Permanent secretaries – the most senior officials in Whitehall – were bombarded with complaints by colleagues after Ministers gave the order for the flags to be raised last week.
The Home Office had an Israeli flag flying by Monday while it took Health Secretary Steve Barclay until Wednesday to persuade civil servants to obey his order.
The flag was then taken down again against Mr Barclay’s wishes, reports have suggested.
A source said: “It was removed by officials. We are trying to get it back up again.”
No 10 led the way in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks by projecting the Israeli flag onto Downing Street and ordering all Government buildings to follow suit.
The flag was also projected onto the Houses of Parliament and London’s City Hall.
Meanwhile a request to fly the Israeli flag outside the Welsh Parliament has been refused by its presiding officer.
Elin Jones, who is a Plaid Cymru politician, said she did not think it should be flown while both Israelis and Palestinians are suffering.
The Senedd dimmed its lights as a mark of respect until the end of week instead.
A Whitehall source said: “Despite the horrific nature of the Hamas attacks, there was still a lot of resistance to the idea of flying the flag.
“It was intended as a mark of solidarity with the victims, but civil servants are disproportionately Left-leaning and instinctively sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
“The perm secs [permanent secretaries] were lobbied hard to block the move on the grounds that it was taking a political side.”
Government departments also flew the Ukrainian flag, or projected its colours of yellow and blue onto its buildings following Russia’s invasion last year.
