JD Vance faces protests over Gaza war as he visits Scotland

US Vice President JD Vance was greeted by pro-Palestine protesters following his arrival to Scotland for a family holiday amid growing outrage over Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and the Trump administration’s complicity in it.

On Wednesday evening, Vance landed at Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport before travelling in a large motorcade to the upscale Carnell Estate near Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, where dozens of pro-Palestine protesters awaited him. 

According to Scottish media, police kettled the demonstrators as they banged pots and pans, waved Palestinian flags, and shouted pro-Palestine chants. 

Officers had initially told the protesters they would need to move and warned they would be forcibly relocated to a different nearby area if they refused. 

Ahead of Vance’s visit, activists from Mothers Against Genocide and Stop Trump UK issued social media calls urging protesters to gather outside the estate. 

“We are calling on everyone to look out their pots and pans to join us and Stop Trump UK to make noise for Gaza who are being deliberately starved and shot at aid distribution sites,” a post from Mothers against Genocide said.

“America could stop this horror today. Instead, JD Vance is holidaying in Kilmarnock, where he is hunting and fishing while he is complicit in starving an entire population,” it added.

Vance is reportedly set to spend five days in Scotland – matching the length of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the country last month. 

During his trip, Trump split his stay between his golf courses in South Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire, meeting Scottish First Minister John Swinney and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 

The Scottish protest follows a demonstration in a quiet Cotswolds village in England, where dozens gathered in the Oxfordshire countryside to tell the US Vice President he was “not welcome” as he stayed in a Grade II listed country manor in the hamlet of Dean. 

Local media reported that between 50 and 100 people assembled in nearby Charlbury, with many citing US support for Israel amid the starvation and bombardment of Gaza.  

Several were seen carrying placards reading “End the genocide” and labelling the vice president a “war criminal”.

Both the current Trump administration and the previous Biden administration have faced global outrage over their aid to Israel amid its nearly two-year war on Gaza, which has killed over 60,000 people and utterly devastated the territory.  

Pro-Palestine advocates have repeatedly called for an end to the war and urged US officials to pressure Israel to allow greater humanitarian aid into the territory.

It comes amid alarming reports from Gaza’s health authorities of deaths from starvation and malnutrition, amid a total Israeli siege on the territory.