The Scottish National Party last week expelled from its ranks a former high-ranking member for stating that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza.
The SNP Member Conduct Committee on Saturday decided to expel John Mason, a former party whip who had already been demoted for his comments on Israel in August. He has 21 days to appeal the expulsion, the BBC reported on Sunday.
On Aug. 16, Mason tweeted: “There is no genocide. If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed many many more.” For this, Mason was suspended, removed as whip and has now been expelled from the party.
A spokesperson for the SNP in August condemned Mason’s tweet. “To flippantly dismiss the death of more than 40,000 Palestinians is completely unacceptable. There can be no room in the SNP for this kind of intolerance,” the spokesperson wrote.
SNP has become increasingly anti-Israel amid mass protests in the United Kingdom and beyond against the Jewish state’s war on Hamas in Gaza.
SNP has nine out of 650 seats in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British parliament, and none in the upper one, the House of Lords.
Mason has not retracted his statement. After the expulsion, he tweeted: “I continue to believe that we should be able to tolerate a variety of views within the Party as long as we are all committed to Scottish independence.”
