The flag raising event to mark Britain's recognition of the Palestinian state was running a little late at London's newest embassy. Over a century late it might be argued.
The formalities had been due to kick off at 11am outside what had been known as the Palestinian Mission to the UK but there was a problem: too many VIPs.
There were MPs by the dozen, around 60 ambassadors, a smattering of moderately famous faces. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and John Swinney, the first minister of Scotland, were among those present.
All took their places in a pen in front of the two-storey post-war building in Hammersmith, west London, sealed off by metal barriers from a large contingent of TV cameras and microphones as well as a couple of hundred members of the public waving flags.
The Palestinian cause has not always attracted such support and the swell of enthusiasm was causing a few logistical difficulties.
Could we move back to allow the speakers out, an official asked, "just a few steps". It didn't prompt a lot of rejigging.
The Labour MPs Liam Byrne and Rushanara Ali, who recently resigned as a homelessness minister over her treatment of her tenants, were pretty rooted to their prime spots by the flagpole.
Passionate as they no doubt are about Palestinian rights, it would do no harm for the world, and the large Muslim population in their constituencies, to bear witness to their support of this historic decision by a Labour government.
The Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot, with a beaming smile and a wave, was able to walk down a ramp from the mission to open events at 11.15am.
The Arabic song Mawtini (My Homeland), the unofficial national anthem for Palestine from the 1930s until the early 1970s, had been playing in the background but now the ambassador began his address, flanked by Swinney and Hamish Falconer, the minister of state for the Middle East and north Africa.
"Good morning," he said to a whoop from the crowd. "Good, beautiful morning. We are gathered today in front of the Palestinian mission to the UK, here in London to mark a historic moment.
"In the same capital of the Balfour declaration, after more than a century of ongoing denial, dispossession and erasure, the UK government has finally taken the long overdue step of recognising the state of Palestine."
Holding up a plaque, Zomlot said, to cheers from the crowd: "Very soon, pending some legal work, some bureaucratic work with the minister of the government ... this plaque, which reads 'The embassy of the state of Palestine' ... will be placed right behind me on this building."
It was the turn of Falconer. Just 39 years old and put into a ministerial position immediately on being elected last summer, he is widely regarded in parliament as both smart and personable but he looked nervous. Falconer swallowed a couple of his opening words. This was not an easy crowd.
"This is not only an endorsement of the vision of two states," Falconer said. "It is a rejection of extremist ideas on both sides, fantasies of the destruction of the state of Israel or the expulsion of the Palestinian people ...
"The concept of two states living side by side is at risk of being destroyed by appalling violence and hunger by the relentless expansion of settlements and attacks in the West Bank. Despite the strongest demands of the UK and many others, the Israeli government has plunged deeper into a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and pushed Gaza into famine."
"Shame on you," was a cry from the back.
"This conflict can never be solved by force," Falconer went on. "The restrictions on aid are indefensible. Children are starving. Our aid is piling up. I have seen it myself in warehouses. Hamas continues to hold hostages in appalling conditions, and the suffering of families on all sides continues to be brought. These actions do not serve the cause of justice."
"Stop arming Israel," came a chant. "Stop arming Israel, Stop arming Israel."
The Palestinian flag ("black for our mourning, white for our hope, green for our land, and red for the sacrifices of our people," said Zomlot) was raised to the jaunty, albeit militaristic national anthem, known as Fida'i (Warrior), adopted by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in 1972.
Joudie Kalla, 47, a Palestinian-British chef, and author of the prize-winning cookbook, Palestine on a Plate: Memories from My Mother's Kitchen, was watching on. She said: "We came to London in 1981 and we've just been fighting for our rights, for freedom and dignity and to be able to go back home. I currently am not able to visit my country, neither are my family ever allowed back in. My parents are in their 80s. They're gonna die without seeing home again."
It was a day of celebration for her but she had been left frustrated by Falconer's words. "I just think he shouldn't have spoken today," she said. "This is not about Israel today. This is about Palestine. These conversations have happened in other places, but not when we're recognising ourselves and we don't always have to be put hand in hand with them every single time, and this is a problem: that we never have a moment that's just for ourselves."
Khalid Abdalla, 44, the actor who played Dodi Fayed in The Crown, said he found Falconer's words "insufficient".
"In the same way that raising the flag is not enough," he said, "you can feel [it's] that sort of diplomatic speech; yet I also can feel that ... we're at a tipping point globally. I felt in that sort of gathering of MPs and political figures that there is a difference between what they think privately and what they are doing publicly."
The Conservatives, whose leader Kemi Badenoch has condemned the recognition of Palestine as "reward for terrorism", had not sent a frontbencher. There were Tories attending though.
Kit Malthouse, chair of the Conservative Middle East Council, said a few words in support of recognition. Alan Duncan, a former Tory foreign minister, described Badenoch's stance as "absurd". He said: "I'm afraid the Conservative party has disgraced itself on this. It no longer seems to believe in international law.
"They just buy the Benjamin Netanyahu playbook without any kind of sense of history or humanity. I'm afraid Badenoch has allowed her policy to be taken over by [the shadow foreign secretary] Priti Patel and her usual backers."
Ruba Atallah, a young Palestinian woman from Gaza who was asked to speak at the lectern after the politicians, put it all in context. "I stand here for my grandparents and the 48 members of my family whose fate was to be killed in Gaza during the ongoing genocide," she said.
"As a Palestinian from Gaza who has lost her family. I first thought that what I want is for Gaza to return to how it once was. Then I quickly realised that what I want, I truly want, is my family to come back so I may walk in Gaza with a heart full of light."