Scotfella: A Swastika Under The SNP's Sporran? A SNP-led Scottish Council Bans Israeli Books

Monday 23 May 2011

A Swastika Under The SNP's Sporran? A SNP-led Scottish Council Bans Israeli Books

West Dunbartonshire Council, which is in the hands of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) - which following its landslide victory at this months polls is the governing party in Scotland - has taken its espousal of the odious BDS movement a step further into the ordure of antisemitism by ordering public libraries under its sway to boycott any new volumes by Israeli authors, printed or published in Israel. (They are gracious enough to allow Israeli books already in stock to remain on the shelves.)

The shameful move, of course, invites painful memories of 10 May 1933, a day that lives in infamy as that upon which a Nazi mob in Berlin made a bonfire of some 25,000 works by Jewish authors.

SNP-led Dundee City Council sought to do as its West Dunbartonshire counterpart has, but decided against the move - not because it had a sudden twinge of conscience, but because it heeded legal advice that such a move flouts European Union law.

Says a Labour member of the Scottish Parliament, Ken McIntosh, his party's spokesman for Culture and External Affairs:

"This is not just anti-Israel, it is anti-knowledge. While everybody, including councils have the right to express opinions, this simply smacks of a closed minds and actually shuts down debate. I find the move pretty deplorable.

This reflects not so much on Israel, but on West Dunbartonshire Council."

Amir Oftek, press attaché at the Israeli Embassy in London, commented:

"This must be the only organisation in the 21st century which is still banning books. Not only does it close down debate but for many Jews and others who wish to contribute to the peace process in the Middle East this is grossly insensitive.