So when the idea of bringing Ethiopian soldiers to Baidoa was first proposed last year, it proved so divisive that it set off a brawl among officials — and it failed to pass.
"People care about music so much; it's so divisive – and it's all to do with who we are, our boundaries and the way we see our own identity," he suggests.
She added, "It's so divisive, and it's really tearing the country apart".
The mayor has, for his part, withdrawn his support for the Rafah proposal because it became so divisive, he said.
For all the passions and expectations raised by the hearings, the court may yet sidestep the issue – precisely because it is so divisive.
Jonathan Schneer, a historian who wrote a book on the document, said: "It's so divisive even today because Zionists think that the Balfour declaration laid the foundation stone for modern Israel.
It is so divisive that during the last election the inspector general of police told political candidates not to make it a campaign issue.
"But the way she went about it was so divisive, so corrosive, that many communities still bear the scars". Labour's James Kelly branded the UK's only woman prime minister a "class warrior" whose policies resulted in some people having "died in an early grave".
