A Scottish National Party politician has apologised “unreservedly” after she posted an antisemitic image on Twitter.

Sandra White, who represents the party in the Glasgow Kelvin seat at Holyrood, had highlighted a cartoon of piglets suckling a large pig with the word “Rothschild” written on it and showing a bank with a Star of David.

The smaller animals were emblazoned with flags of countries including Britain and Israel and also carried the words Al-Qaeda and Mossad.

The image had originally been posted from an account run by a man called Charles Frith, who has repeatedly posted antisemitic messages and images. Ms White has previously re-posted messages from his account.

In an open letter to the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, Ms White said she had not intended to re-tweet the image on the social media site.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly for the offence that has been caused by my accidental retweeting of this offensive image which I too find repellent and offensive,” the MSP wrote.

“I had not intended to retweet this picture, and was horrified to learn that I had done so. As soon as this was brought to my attention, I deleted the tweet.”

Ms White said she was well-known in Scotland for her “love and tolerance for all peoples; all faiths and all religions” and her work to “stand up for all suffering prejudice regardless of race or creed”.

A long-standing critic of Israel and pro-Palestinian activist, Ms White said views on the Middle East conflict could not justify racial or religious hatred.

The tweet was removed from Ms White’s account on Monday after the JC brought it to the SNP’s attention.

ScoJeC had complained to Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon about the tweet.

The Jewish group said: "We were utterly appalled that any MSP should have seen fit to disseminate such a bizarre and hateful image as the right-hand side of the above picture, which, as we pointed out to the First Minister, is reminiscent of the very worst of Nazi propaganda."

The Community Security Trust said it was "one of the most disgusting examples of antisemitism" ever from a politician.

Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly acknowledged the Jewish community’s concerns about antisemitism in Scotland.

In September she said she did not believe there was an “antisemitic culture in the Scottish Parliament”.

● Meanwhile the head of the SNP's Friends of Palestine group claims he was detained by security services in Israel after landing in the country earlier this week.

Andy Murray said he was held for more than 24 hours at both Ben Gurion Airport and at a detention centre before being deported back to Britain.

Mr Murray told the Herald Scotland newspaper that he believed a meeting with Israeli embassy officials at a conference in Aberdeen last month had led to the action against him.

His computer was allegedly searched by a security team before he was eventually put on a flight back to the UK.

Mr Murray said he had asked the SNP's Glasgow North West MP Carol Monaghan to contact the Foreign Office to ask for his release.