Councillor has little to say about Hamas slaughter - John McLellan

International diplomacy may be mourning the passing of Henry Kissinger, but fear not, Edinburgh Green councillor Alys Mumford is ready to pick up the mantle.

Councillor Alys Mumford

That may be an unfortunate metaphor, given the phrase describes how Elisha took up the cloak left behind by the Biblical prophet Elijah as he ascended to heaven, and Cllr Mumford is one of those pro-Palestinians who gleefully chant that “river to the sea” mantra, widely recognised (not by the Greens) as calling for the destruction of Israel.

But now, Cllr Mumford wants all arts and performances supported by the Israeli government to be banned from Edinburgh Council venues. And she wants the council to go further, by “encouraging” other venues to do the same.

In condemning Israel as an “apartheid” state in a motion to today’s full council meeting, it’s notable she makes no reference to the Hamas slaughter on October 7, or the systematic rape, mutilation and murder of Israeli women at the Nova music festival. Who would have thought someone who was head of development for the Scottish Government-funded feminist campaign group Engender, has so little to say about the extreme sexual violence to which Hamas subjected Jewish women?

Perhaps because to do so exposes the yawning gap between an aggressor like Russia, to which Cllr Mumford compares Israel, and a small country surrounded by enemies and faced with unspeakable barbarity.