Activists against antisemitism in Scotland delivered a letter to the head of the government on Sunday, signed by nearly 3,000 people, warning that his anti-Israel actions and rhetoric were fanning the flames of Jew-hatred.
The letter delivered to Scottish First Minister John Swinney followed his announcement on Thursday that his government would pause new awards of public contracts to arms companies supplying Israel.
“Not one Palestinian life will be saved by these measures, but Jewish life in Scotland will be put further at risk,” Leah Benoz, founder and director of Scotland Against Antisemitism, said in a statement about the letter that her organization authored and got nearly 3,000 people to sign.
The letter noted that, in announcing the boycott, Swinney said that “in the face of genocide, there can be no business as usual.” Israel and the U.S. have roundly rejected the characterization of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza as genocide.
Scotland’s government “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,” Swinney said.
He also called for the recognition of a Palestinian state—something the British government has said it will do next week if Israel does not meet certain conditions, including reaching a ceasefire.
In the letter, the signatories asked Swinney to “retract inflammatory language, particularly around ‘genocide,’ engage with the Jewish community in Scotland,” and “commit to concrete measures to protect Jewish safety.”
The signatories also wrote that although Scottish Jews number around 5,000 people, or 0.093% of the population, they were the victims of approximately 17% of all religiously motivated hate crimes last year.
