In a post about the 2009 decision by the West Dunbartonshire Council in Scotland to boycott goods made or grown in Israel, ModernityBlog raised the perfectly reasonable question of whether this applies to Israeli computer and medical technology.
Cllr Jonathan McColl of West Dunbartonshire replied in the comments:
You think we should replace all of our computers and stop using medical services?
You clearly have a screw loose somewhere.
Perhaps we should stop speaking and writing given that much of our language is based on Latin and we all know what the Italians did during the war.
To cease to use medicine and kill ourselves to make a point is also a ridiculous suggestion. I’m getting flashbacks from ‘Monty Python’s The Life of Brian’ and the ‘Judean People’s Front crack suicide squad! Suicide squad’.
As a Local Authority, our primary responsibility is to our own citizens and I could not vote to spend tens of millions of pounds replacing computer systems.
This was a private member’s motion from an Independent Councillor who wanted support to express his feelings on Israel’s military policy.
As a small Council, we are well aware that a boycott will have little actual impact in the Israeli economy, but it’s about taking a position on the issue.
You call it “posturing”, I call it standing up and saying, “We think what you are doing is wrong.”
If you really believe that’s such a terrible thing to do then we’re going to have to agree to disagree.
I supported Jim’s motion two years ago and I’d support it again were the vote today.
I read this as: “We will boycott Israeli products except when it inconveniences us in any way.”
Does anyone have another interpretation?
