Since we first revealed the plans of West Dunbartonshire Council to boycott Israeli goods, including barring Israeli books from libraries, the story has been picked up around the world. Commentators and politicians have been sickened by the idea. But as if the initial reports were not bad enough, the council's attempts at justification are simply risible.
No, they cry; they have been misrepresented. They don't want to ban Israeli books - they want to ban books from Israel. But ridiculous as that distinction in search of a difference may be, the words of Councillor Jim Bollan, the instigator of the boycott, are simply disgusting. It is scarcely credible that anyone could seek to explain away the murders of the Fogels, let alone by arguing that the murderer was driven to his depravity by the actions of the IDF. Yet although the now former Israeli Ambassador, Ron Prosor, showed how seriously he takes what is happening in Scotland by making Glasgow his last port of call in the UK, there has been a very loud silence from the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, the official representative body. All the running has been made by individual activists. If they are not stirred to action by this, what will it take?