{"id":395374,"date":"2025-09-03T19:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/395374\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T19:58:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:58:16","slug":"swinney-accused-of-ignoring-scotlands-problems-in-favour-of-symbolic-holyrood-vote-on-palestinian-statehood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/395374\/","title":{"rendered":"Swinney accused of ignoring Scotland’s problems in favour of symbolic Holyrood vote on Palestinian statehood"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Swinney was yesterday accused of ignoring Scotland\u2019s problems in favour of virtue signalling about Gaza.<\/p>\n

The First Minister said he could not ignore warnings that Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u2019s government was behind a \u2018genocide\u2019 in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He announced the SNP<\/a> was ditching its long-running policy of denying public cash to defence firms making \u2018munitions\u2019 in light of growing global uncertainty.<\/p>\n

But firms selling material to Israel<\/a> would remain ineligible for support.<\/p>\n

\u2018In the face of genocide, there can be no business as usual,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

He was accused by pro-Israel groups of indulging in \u2018pure gesture politics\u2019 that will make no difference to the situation in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Tories said Mr Swinney was failing to pay \u2018full and urgent attention\u2019 to a long list of domestic problems as he devoted hours at Holyrood to foreign affairs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"First <\/p>\n

First Minister John Swinney<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Palestinian flag fluttering at St Andrews’s House, the Scottish government HQ<\/p>\n

The moves were based on \u2018plausible evidence of genocide\u2019, the Government said.<\/p>\n

Mr Swinney announced \u00a3400,000 for Kids Operating Room to help establish a Gaza field hospital for surgical, maternity and paediatric services.<\/p>\n

A further \u00a3600,000 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.<\/p>\n

The First Minister called on the UK Government to recognise the state of Palestine on an unconditional and \u2018irreversible\u2019 basis and pull out of a free trade deal with Israel and ban the import of goods from \u2018illegal settlements\u2019.<\/p>\n

As a Palestinian flag was flown over the Scottish Government\u2019s HQ, he said he \u2018utterly rejected anti-Semitism and all forms of racism and hatred\u2019 and had this week reassured Jewish leaders of his respect for their \u2018valued and cherished community in Scotland\u2019.<\/p>\n

He was criticised by Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay, who agreed about the \u2018horrors\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

Mr Findlay called recognition of a Palestine state \u2018premature\u2019 and \u2018counter productive\u2019.<\/p>\n

He said: \u2018I do not doubt the sincerity of the First Minister\u2019s feelings but I also believe that this parliament should focus the powers It has to improve people\u2019s lives here in Scotland. I believe that issues here need our full and urgent attention.<\/p>\n

\"Scottish <\/p>\n

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay<\/p>\n

\u2018Drug 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018I would rather Mr Swinney provide a statement on these issues for which he has responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u2018But since the statement is before us, I would like to ask John Swinney<\/a> about his demand to immediately recognise Palestinian statehood.<\/p>\n

\u2018This will be seen by many as premature, impractical and counter productive.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr Swinney hit back: \u2018I willingly accept my responsibility for the issues for which I have responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u2018On the question of the recognition of the Palestinian state, I do not think it is premature.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think it is long overdue, to be honest, and long overdue by multiple decades.\u2019<\/p>\n

In his statement to parliament, Mr Swinney said the situation in Gaza was a \u2018man-made humanitarian catastrophe\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

He said the Scottish Government \u2018cannot ignore\u2019 the International Court of Justice\u2019s warning of a \u2018prima facie case of genocide in Gaza\u2019.<\/p>\n

He added: \u2018We 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018The 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018Any defence company seeking support from the Scottish Government will have to demonstrate that its products are not involved militarily with Israel.\u2019<\/p>\n

The munitions U-turn followed intense criticism of the SNP denying \u00a32.5 million towards an \u00a311 million Rolls-Royce welding centre on the Clyde as it was linked to an \u2018attack submarine\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Tories had called it the \u201cworst kind of student politics\u2019.<\/p>\n

Scottish Tory deputy Rachael Hamilton said: \u2018Given the huge importance of the defence sector to Scotland\u2019s economy, this unfair ban should never have existed in the first place. The fact that it did speaks to the na\u00efve, student-politics streak through the SNP.\u2019<\/p>\n

Labour MSP Daniel Johnson added: \u2018While the SNP has dithered, Labour\u2019s investment in defence has secured thousands of jobs in Scottish manufacturing and shipbuilding.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the debate, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called the situation in Gaza \u2018beyond intolerable\u2019 and dubbed Israeli PM Netanyahu, who denies genocide, a \u2018war criminal\u2019.<\/p>\n

Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer urged a \u2018global boycott against apartheid Israel\u2019.<\/p>\n

Former first minister Humza Yousaf shed tears as he said everyone should examine their conscience.<\/p>\n

\u2018What 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

In a purely symbolic vote, MSPs later backed the recognition of a state of Palestine by 65 to 24, with 26 abstentions.<\/p>\n

A Green amendment calling on the Scottish and UK Governments to \u2018immediately impose a package of boycotts, divestment and sanctions targeted at the state of Israel\u2019 and firms \u2018complicit in its military operations and its occupation of Palestine\u2019 passed by 62 to 31 votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Swinney was yesterday accused of ignoring Scotland\u2019s problems in favour of virtue signalling about Gaza. The First…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,92,4884,837,7852,12,1814,712,10004,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-395374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-john-swinney","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-palestine","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-snp","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115142138814028200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}