A Scottish Green MSP has come under fire after claiming Israel was responsible for the horrific Hamas terrorist attack.
Maggie Chapman, who sits on Holyrood’s equalities committee, claimed in a message on X/Twitter that Saturday's attack was a "consequence of apartheid, illegal occupation and imperial aggression by the Israeli state".
The MSP, who represents North East Scotland in Holyrood, quote tweeted a pro-Hamas post, and said: “What’s happening in #palestine is a consequence of #apartheid, of illegal occupation & of imperial aggression by the Israel state”.
Jackson Carlaw, Scottish Conservative MSP for Eastwood, home to Scotland’s largest Jewish community said the comments were “vile”.
He also urged Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf to review the SNP’s government partnership with the Scottish Greens now or accept being labelled “an apologist for antisemitism”.
https://twitter.com/MaggieChapman/status/1711061209737265260?
The Scottish Greens signed the Bute House Agreement with the SNP in August 2021, which gave the pro-Scottish independence parties a majority in the Scottish Parliament.
Carlaw, who has written to Yousaf, said: “Maggie Chapman’s vile comments in the wake of Hamas’ appalling attack, which has killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, has rightly provoked outrage on social media.
“It lays bare the disgusting bigotry that pollutes the Scottish Greens and makes them totally unfit to be a party of government.
“But Maggie Chapman’s comments are so unacceptable that Humza Yousaf must end the toxic Bute House Agreement and kick the Greens out of his government. If not, he will be deemed an apologist for antisemitism.
Scottish Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw (Photo: Getty)
“It defies belief that Maggie Chapman can hold views as callous and abhorrent as these while serving on the equalities committee. Her position on that committee is now untenable.”
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross added: “What a disgusting and shameful post from a member of the Scottish Parliament.
"People are being killed and raped by terrorists yet this is the response from a representative of one of the parties governing Scotland.
“The post is beyond the pale and has to be called out.”
Responding to the calls, Yousaf said: "I have seen the tweet, and Maggie Chapman is responsible for what Maggie Chapman says.
"To somehow equate what is happening in the geo-political situation between Israel and Palestine, to reduce it to an issue about whether the Bute House Agreement can go on or shouldn't go on, I think is terribly crass."
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf (Photo: Getty)
Speaking in his capacity as Scottish Greens external affairs spokesperson, MSP Ross Greer added: “Deliberately massacring innocent civilians is a war crime and an act of pure evil. We condemn Hamas without hesitation.
“Palestinians have the right under international law to resist the Israeli occupation by force, but Hamas fighters murdering young people at a music festival and kidnapping wheelchair-bound pensioners is no act of resistance.
“Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine must be recognised as the root cause of these cycles of violence and both Hamas and the Israeli Government held to account for the war crimes they have committed.
"There is no military solution that does not consign thousands more innocent people, Palestinian and Israeli, to their deaths."
