MSPs finally vote to boycott apartheid Israel – now we must work to ensure the Scottish Government take immediate action
3 September 2025
We welcome the Scottish Government’s announcement of a pause on public funding to arms companies linked to Israel and restrictions on the facilitation of trade with the apartheid and genocidal state of Israel. We look forward to greater detail around what this will look like in practice.
John Swinney's statement is long overdue and comes after 23 months of relentless Israeli violence, including genocide in Gaza and escalating settler-colonialism in the West Bank.
That it has taken this long—despite overwhelming evidence from the start—is unacceptable. This announcement is a direct result of the work of SPSC and other organisations and individuals across Scottish civil society who have marched, lobbied, educated, and organised, demanding action from the Scottish Government.
We are concerned about the SNP’s motion to recognise a Palestinian state. During an ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing, symbolic recognition is not solidarity—it’s a distraction. If we support the self-determination of the Palestinian people, we must first stop Israel's brutal violence and violations of Palestinian rights and dignity, and refrain from imposing a solution that aims to maintain a settler colonial state of Israel. What is urgently needed is real accountability: boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS).
We were shocked to see discussion during this debate conflating the state of Israel and Scotland’s Jewish communities, many of whom have marched, lobbied and organised in solidarity with the people of Palestine. It was also shamefully notable that there was no mention of any outreach to the Scottish Palestinian community, who are witnessing the genocide of their people, their families.
The Scottish Green Party has adopted a principled and consistent approach from the start of the genocide, and their motion amendment and contributions in the debate were considerate and carried the urgency for action in the form of BDS that Palestinians have been calling for, not just for the last 23 months, but for 20 years.
We welcome today’s monumental shift—but it’s only a beginning. We must keep building pressure on the Scottish Government to ensure it takes forward the motion passed in the Scottish Parliament today.
Our work continues to take this decision forward by accelerating our BDS campaigns.
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- Scottish Government statement: Support for defence companies involved in Israel halted
- Scottish Green Party Palestine - Amendment 1
Well done, Scottish government. It only took hundreds of thousands of civilian lives and COUNTLESS war crimes! Now at the end, right before IsNOTreal commits its final stage of ethnic cleansing, you do the honourable thing? You take an ethical stance? Swinney putting up the Palestine flag for the media photo shoot then taking it down a few hours later says all I need to know about the man’s integrity. We need a new government. Meanwhile, the people are taking action!
Excellent statement.
I think a Freedom of Information request to the Scottish government, the UK government, Police forces (including the Met which seems to be the worse) and the Judiciary is necessary to find out how much these arrests cost the taxpayer.
Also, I cannot help but think of the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup (abbreviation of Vélodrome d’Hiver [Winter Velodrome] round up), a mass arrest of Jews in Paris on 16–17 July 1942 by Vichy French police at the behest of the German occupational authorities. Occurring during World War II, Jews arrested during the roundup were deported to Nazi Germany and targeted for extermination as part of the Holocaust.
For decades the French government declined to apologize for the role of French policemen in the roundup or for state complicity. More recently, a French President admitted: “It was indeed France that organised this [roundup]”. French police collaborating with the Nazis. “Not a single German took part,” he added.
This Operation, “Opération Vent printanier” (Operation Spring Wind) was planned by Secretary general to the Vichy French police René Bousquet. Declared guilty of “indignité nationale” for his involvement in the Vichy government, he was later indicted by the national government and shot dead at his apartment in Paris a few weeks before his trial was scheduled to open.
Now, the UK government is not only assessed as being complicit in genocide but as being participating in genocide (https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/not-complicity-participation).
Will British Police forces follow the path of their French counterparts in the 1940s?” Will they later – as their French counterparts did – claim they were “just following orders”? This excuse was widely rejected.
Police Scotland define their core values as Integrity, Fairness, Respect, and a commitment to Protecting Human Rights. They say that “these values serve as the foundation for their professional ethics, guiding the conduct of police officers and staff in their interactions with the public and each other, and are central to maintaining public trust and confidence in the police service.”
Time for them to prove they still adhere to these values!