Labour clash with SNP and Greens over Kneecap in Palestine debate
The council was debating a motion on Palestine and all three parties united in condemning Israel and branding the war a genocide.
However, the comment by the band 'The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP' meant Labour wouldn't support the motion as it resisted efforts to ban the group and the Greens refused to remove it.
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Jon Molyneux, Green councillor, said the people of Palestine are being given a choice to 'move or starve.'
He said: 'Israel's genocide is one of the greatest tragedies of my lifetime'.
He said the 'world watches on and chooses equivalence, complicity and profit".
Molyneux said the council has already chosen not to support Israel's genocide.
The councillor said Kneecap's comments on politicians were 'stupid' and said they have apologised.
He added there is a 'deliberate attempt to shut them up' because of their views on Palestine.
He added: 'Israel is precipitating a genocide and must be stopped.'
Holly Bruce, Green councillor, said protesters seeking justice in various battles need to show 'allyship' with one another.
Ahead of the debate, she changed into a T-shirt with the slogan 'From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free".
(Image: newsquest)
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She had her speech cut off for being out of time, but councillor Molyneux said her closing remark was to have echoed Welsh artists, who said: 'Kneecap is not the story, the story is the slaughter in Gaza.'
Dan Hutchison, Green councillor, echoed the phrase when he ended his remarks stating, 'From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free.'
Susan Aitken, Council leader, said: 'It is clear the playing at diplomacy of the Trump administration has made the situation worse."
She said it has: 'Piled misery on misery and murder on murder.'
Aitken added it made it more important for Keir Starmer and other leaders to 'step in to take action to prevent further escalation of this genocide".
On Kneecap, she said the "hurt" and "anger" in some quarters caused by those words were sincere and had to be understood.
She added: 'Provocative statements by artists shouldn't always be taken literally.
'It's the role of art to make us uncomfortable. Freedom of expression has to be for everyone.'
She said just because something makes people feel discomfort or a statement is in distaste, it 'doesn't mean we have the right to cancel artists because we might be offended".
Labour condemned Israel for its actions in Gaza, which it said was a genocide, but did not support the motion unless it took reference to Kneecap out.
Bill Butler, Labour councillor, said: 'Calls for murder, plain and simple, is not satire.'
On Palestine, he said: 'We believe what is occurring in the Gaza Strip and West Bank does not resemble a genocide, it is a genocide.'
Rashid Husain, Labour group leader, said Palestinians are being 'bombed and starved' by Israel.
On Kneecap, he added: 'There is room for provocative material.
'We don't agree with any hate speech and killing of politicians is unacceptable.'
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