Boycott spreading in Scotland: Clackmannanshire Council joins W. Dunbartonshire and Stirling in boycott of Israel
"Clackmannanshire Council condemns the Government of Israel for its continuing illegal occupation of Palestine's East Jerusalem and the West Bank and for its continuing illegal blockade of Gaza.
Clackmannanshire Council welcomes the decision of the United Nations on 29 November 2012 to grant "non member observer State" to Palestine.
However, for the people of Palestine, the suffering of the last 64 years continues as the Government of Israel continues to ignore and breach international law.
Just as individual sanctions against apartheid in South Africa led ultimately to its demise there, so individual and collection sanctions against the state of Israel will end apartheid and suffering in Palestine.
Clackmannanshire Council therefore resolves to resist, insofar as legislative considerations permit, any action that gives political or economic support to the State of Israel."
Motion to Clackmannanshire Council by Cllr Archie Drummond Thursday 14th March 2013.
The motion was passed nem con by a meeting of the full Council, with three abstentions (one Labour, one SNP, and the lone Tory).
Cllr Drummond, a socialist who was elected as an Independent, reports that the debate on the motion was focussed and serious, and at least one member changed his pre-debate position and voted for the motion. He wrote in a letter to his constituents:
"When the Forth Valley Palestine Group contacted me for support they pushed at an open door and this was also true of a number of my fellow councillors, irrespective of their party tags.
As a member of Amnesty International and supporter of Oxfam for some years, I have added my small voice to human rights issues and humanitarian aid across the globe
because that's what good people do.
Therefore the treatment meted out to the people of Palestine by the state of Israel throughout my lifetime has not escaped me or the people of Scotland. The motion that we debated focussed entirely on the long years of illegal action by the state of Israel.
That illegality stretches from breach of UN Resolution 242 in 1967, through 45 years and 50 further UN Resolutions up to and including the recent murder of Turkish humanitarians on the open sea and illegal settlement building in Palestine.
The debate on the motion was the most mature and considered debate that I have seen in my limited experience of this council. There was no anger and no raised voice among the ten councillors who contributed to the debate. Not one councillor spoke in defence of the actions of the state of Israel and no one voted against the motion.
The motion condemns the illegal actions of Israel and commits the Council to resist, within the law, any action that gives political or economic support to the state of Israel.
It would be hypocritical to oppose illegality with illegality and this is an argument that applies equally to those who might seek to defend the actions and record of the state of Israel."
Gus Robbie is an occupational health practitioner and a member of Forth Valley Branch of SPSC who lives in the area. Gus initated the lobbying that led to the successful vote, with other Branch members pitching in.
"We have a right to global peace, and the journey there will only be achieved by supporting human rights and the rule of law. If we continue to profit from those who perpetually flaunt these, then the future for all of us, and our children, is grim indeed."
During the Israeli mass killings of Operation Cast Lead, West Dunbartonshire Council passed a motion to support the appeal from Palestinian civil society for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the state of Israel, and institutions supporting that state, until Israel respects all its obligations under international law. The response from Zionists internationally was surreal; from the USA they detected "in Scotland, a hint of Goebbels" and "a level of hatred that connects" Scotland today to Nazi Germany. The Scottish Daily Express ran a wholly ficitious story that West Dunbartonshire Council was "launching a boycott of Israeli books" and favourably quoted the Israeli Embassy's Amir Oftek, who compared the Council to Joseph Goebbels burning books by Jewish authors.
Jim Bollan of the SSP moved the first motion for boycott by a Scottish Council, West Dunbartonshire Council, and he writes:
The decision by Clackmannanshire Council to boycott Israeli goods is an excellent important development in seeking equality and justice for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Coupled with Stirling and my own Council West Dunbartonshire's boycott this is a tremendous move forward.
Cllr Archie Drummond and his colleagues should be congratulated for this support and solidarity with the Palestinian people whose land is being occupied by a brutal regime, the Israeli State, who impose an apartheid system against the Palestinian people. I would urge other Council's to consider a boycott, a move which the Palestinians support.
You can send a letter of support to the Clackmannanshire Council, supporting its stand for Palestinian rights and congratulating the Councillors on their opposition to Israel's illegal occupation and system of apartheid imposed on Palestine.
Go to www.coordin8.org.uk - it only takes a few moments.
Cllr Archie Drummond can be contacted at 07881 832 301 or email adrummond@clacks.gov.uk