Partition does not build bridges and is in light of history a discredited solution to national problems.

The Republic of Ireland was created on December 6, 1922.

The following day the Six Counties opted out of the new dominion and from that day till now the process has been characterised by bloody conflict with brief periods of peace.

Around the same period the "Balfour declaration" was uttered which supported the provision of a national homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine - a prospect not welcomed by the Palestinian and Arab people who were there.

This as we know became a reality in 1948 when Israel declared independence.

To this day Balfour Day is a day of celebration for Israelis and a day of protest among Arab nations this partition has also been a source of conflict much of it Bloody.

In 1945 the USA and the USSR divided Korea and we know that again bloody conflict ensued and although known as the forgotten war so many nations were involved that it should more properly be described as Second World War fighting continues till the present day.

At a Geneva Conference in 1954 a decision to separate North and South Vietnam was taken and again history is witness to the disastrous results.

In 1965 the USA could not contain its impartiality any longer and launched the "advisor" stage of the war this continued until 1976 when the North and South were merged and we all remember the atrocities committed in the name of freedom.

Farther back in history the partition of Poland was never greeted with enthusiasm by Polish people and created nothing but bloodshed and unrest.

So in the words of Marx "the present is explained by analysing the past".

Unless we understand history we understand nothing.

The ongoing attacks on West Dunbartonshire councillors are at a very personal level and allege an ignorance of the facts.

I am not entirely ignorant of the facts.

I have visited Bergen Belsen and been moved to tears by the enormity of the crimes committed against not only Jews but Rusians, Poles, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, homosexuals, gypsies, people who suffered from mental illness and others who did not fit the Aryan Supremacist mould.

This place is not only a monument to the 30,000 Jews who died at the hands of the murderous Nazis, but a warning to zealots of whatever persuasion that ever one is entitled to their opinion.

The decision in 2009 to embargo goods from Israel was not an attempt to summon up a Krystal nacht in West Dunbartonshire - it was a humanitarian response to the deaths of 1,000 civilians in that war torn region and an honest attempt to seek a diplomatic solution to the problem.

The world recognises that change or political power does not grow out of the barrel of an AK47 as famously stated by Chairman Mao, but will only come about when people realise that we are all citizens of the world and must live in harmony.

The knowledge which will allow us to move towards this goal will come from libraries, where no books have ben banned or removed because of this decision I took part in that debate and do not apologise for doing so in a democracy.

I believe my contribution condemned the aggressors on both part of the conflict and mourned the loss of life on both sides and would commend the people who are attacking us to join us in seeking a peaceful solution Councillor George Black Dumbarton Ward