Badenoch Highland councillor walks out of Palestine debate
A Middle East conflict has sparked a furious clash between Highland councillors.
Donnie Kerr lodged a motion at the latest full council meeting urging it to condemn the Israeli government for its "illegal occupation of Palestine’s east Jerusalem and the West Bank and its continuing illegal blockage of Gaza".
But the Inverness member’s actions drew an angry response from senior Lib Dem Thomas Prag who claimed the controversial motion was a waste of Highland Council time and promptly walked out in protest before the debate began.
A scaled-down version of the motion was partly successful as councillors voted 21 to 14 in favour of condemning Israel and welcomed the UN decision to grant non-member observer state to Palestine.
But the council stopped short of resisting any political or economic support to Israel and endorsing a comparison to the situation with apartheid in South Africa.
Councillor Thomas Prag thought it was "extraordinary" that the issue was on the agenda and said his constituents had voted for him to represent them on Highland issues.
"I think it is an abuse of the chamber," said Councillor Prag, who promptly left, followed by party colleague Gregor Rimmell (Badenoch and Strathspey) and other councillors.
Councillor Kerr, an Independent Nationalist who often wears a Palestinian badge, disagreed and said it was an issue that had been recently debated by trade unions and the Church of Scotland.
But Ross-shire Independent Michael Finalyson, who dismissed the claim the troubled region was gripped by apartheid, described the motion as too shallow. He said any debate on the conflict should be postponed until balanced information could be provided from both sides.
"We should have speakers from Israel and Palestine to put forward their views," said the Cromarty Firth councillor. "I think this is a premature motion and I don’t think enough of us know enough about it."
Labour Inverness councillor Fraser Parr disagreed and called on the council to consider twinning the city and Highland towns with urban areas in Palestine.
Depute council leader David Alston criticised the motion’s "vagueness" and lodged a successful amendment to approve only part of it which won by 21 votes to 14.
There were 30 abstentions after Councillor Finlayson’s amendment to defer the motion lost by 29 votes to 25.
