John Swinney was yesterday accused of ignoring Scotland’s problems in favour of virtue signalling about Gaza.
The First Minister said he could not ignore warnings that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was behind a ‘genocide’ in Gaza.
He announced the SNP was ditching its long-running policy of denying public cash to defence firms making ‘munitions’ in light of growing global uncertainty.
But firms selling material to Israel would remain ineligible for support.
‘In the face of genocide, there can be no business as usual,’ he said.
He was accused by pro-Israel groups of indulging in ‘pure gesture politics’ that will make no difference to the situation in the Middle East.
The Scottish Tories said Mr Swinney was failing to pay ‘full and urgent attention’ to a long list of domestic problems as he devoted hours at Holyrood to foreign affairs.
The First Minister told MSPs no new money would go to arms companies selling material to Israel and that he had ordered public bodies not to facilitate trade between Scotland and Israel.
First Minister John Swinney
The Palestinian flag fluttering at St Andrews’s House, the Scottish government HQ
The moves were based on ‘plausible evidence of genocide’, the Government said.
Mr Swinney announced £400,000 for Kids Operating Room to help establish a Gaza field hospital for surgical, maternity and paediatric services.
A further £600,000 will go to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the Occupied Palestinian Territories to provide food, water, shelter and cash for families.
The First Minister called on the UK Government to recognise the state of Palestine on an unconditional and ‘irreversible’ basis and pull out of a free trade deal with Israel and ban the import of goods from ‘illegal settlements’.
As a Palestinian flag was flown over the Scottish Government’s HQ, he said he ‘utterly rejected anti-Semitism and all forms of racism and hatred’ and had this week reassured Jewish leaders of his respect for their ‘valued and cherished community in Scotland’.
He was criticised by Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay, who agreed about the ‘horrors’ of the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza, but said Mr Swinney had a long list of domestic duties to focus on first.
Mr Findlay called recognition of a Palestine state ‘premature’ and ‘counter productive’.
He said: ‘I do not doubt the sincerity of the First Minister’s feelings but I also believe that this parliament should focus the powers It has to improve people’s lives here in Scotland. I believe that issues here need our full and urgent attention.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay
‘Drug deaths are the worst in Europe for the seventh consecutive year, many communities live in fear of serious violence. Lives are being lost due to chronic problems in the NHS.
‘I would rather Mr Swinney provide a statement on these issues for which he has responsibility.
‘But since the statement is before us, I would like to ask John Swinney about his demand to immediately recognise Palestinian statehood.
‘This will be seen by many as premature, impractical and counter productive.’
Mr Swinney hit back: ‘I willingly accept my responsibility for the issues for which I have responsibility.
‘On the question of the recognition of the Palestinian state, I do not think it is premature.
‘I think it is long overdue, to be honest, and long overdue by multiple decades.’
In his statement to parliament, Mr Swinney said the situation in Gaza was a ‘man-made humanitarian catastrophe’ that had resulted in 63,000 deaths since the Hamas attack on Israelis on 7 October 2023 killed 1,200 and saw the taking of 250 hostages.
He said the Scottish Government ‘cannot ignore’ the International Court of Justice’s warning of a ‘prima facie case of genocide in Gaza’.
He added: ‘We will pause new awards of public money to arms companies whose products or services are provided to countries where there is plausible evidence of genocide being committed by that country. That will include Israel.
‘The pause will apply where possible, to new grants provided or investment made by the Scottish Government, our enterprise agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank.
‘Any defence company seeking support from the Scottish Government will have to demonstrate that its products are not involved militarily with Israel.’
The munitions U-turn followed intense criticism of the SNP denying £2.5 million towards an £11 million Rolls-Royce welding centre on the Clyde as it was linked to an ‘attack submarine’.
The Tories had called it the “worst kind of student politics’.
Scottish Tory deputy Rachael Hamilton said: ‘Given the huge importance of the defence sector to Scotland’s economy, this unfair ban should never have existed in the first place. The fact that it did speaks to the naïve, student-politics streak through the SNP.’
Labour MSP Daniel Johnson added: ‘While the SNP has dithered, Labour’s investment in defence has secured thousands of jobs in Scottish manufacturing and shipbuilding.’
In the debate, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called the situation in Gaza ‘beyond intolerable’ and dubbed Israeli PM Netanyahu, who denies genocide, a ‘war criminal’.
Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer urged a ‘global boycott against apartheid Israel’.
Former first minister Humza Yousaf shed tears as he said everyone should examine their conscience.
‘What has become of us that we can allow ourselves to be so divided by the geopolitics when a massacre of tens of thousand of children is happening in front of our very eyes and the world does virtually nothing about it? Shame on us.’
In a purely symbolic vote, MSPs later backed the recognition of a state of Palestine by 65 to 24, with 26 abstentions.
A Green amendment calling on the Scottish and UK Governments to ‘immediately impose a package of boycotts, divestment and sanctions targeted at the state of Israel’ and firms ‘complicit in its military operations and its occupation of Palestine’ passed by 62 to 31 votes.