Scottish First Minister: Israel is a foreign state, not a Scottish community
Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, told a meeting this week of the Jewish Educational Forum that opposition to the State of Israel has nothing to do with anti-Semitism and he criticised those who would link the entire Scotland Jewish community with that State.
"I don't think we should accept as a community that your position in Scottish society should be judged or affected by the policies of Israel. The Jewish community is not liable for those policies…It is possible to be critical of Israel without being antisemitic.”
Salmond himself called in April for a review of trade relations with Israel following an Israeli murder of a Palestinian resistance member in a Dubai hotel.
The Scottish Government First Minister was echoing the points made by Sheriff John Scott in his recent landmark ruling, dismissing all charges against five Scottish PSC members accused of racism charges as absurd and defending freedom of speech for campaigners for the boycott of Israel. Where Sheriff Scott made the elementary point that a state is not a person: First Minister Salmond pointed out that Israel is a foreign state, not a Scottish community.
Some of the Scottish Zionist old guard sat throughout the First Minister’s speech, not at all happy with his dismissal of claims from Zionist sources that Scottish Jews face significant and rising anti-Semitism. Facing squarely this incessant claim, that serves the agenda of getting Scots to emigrate to Israel, Salmond said:
"I don't share the analysis that the Jewish community is suffering a wave of persecution or that anti-Semitism in Scotland is rapidly growing… Scotland has never had to introduce any laws to deal with antisemitism… I don't believe that the Jewish community is under siege nor do I believe that it feels itself to be under siege.”
Salmond thus challenged the sometimes reckless claims of rising and dangerous anti-Semitism made by Scottish Zionist bodies and even whether the leaders are accurately reflecting their members’ real opinions at all. Unfounded claims made in the past by public figures in ScoJeC, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, for example, might be contributing to what the Jewish Chronicle reported as “rivalry…over who speaks for the Scottish Jewish community”.
Hopefully some fresh voices will emerge in the Scottish Jewish community supporting Alex Salmond’s opposition to Jewish collective guilt in Israel’s crimes, a claim of collective complicity that the Scottish Zionist old guard assiduously propagates.
One Scottish Zionist who has had her fingers burnt in the past for false accusations of anti-Semitism, Leah Granat, was unhappy with the First Minister’s dismissal of Zionist attempts to portray a community under siege. Ignoring Salmond’s well-known anti-racist credentials, and commitments in his speech that all racism will be monitored and dealt with seriously, Granat said later to the Jewish Telegraph: "Even low-grade incidents…can and do cause distress…The community should be encouraged to report incidents however trivial - not disbelieved and discouraged.” Other members of the audience, however, openly disputed claims of an increase in anti-Semitism.
Leah Granat was one of the authors of 'Scotland’s Jews'. Six thousand copies of the book had to be pulped following legal action by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign over accusations that we “demonised Jews”. ScoJeC Director Borowski accused the Scottish Trade Union Congress of racism after they committed to support the Palestinian call for boycott against Israel, saying “we have no doubt whatever that this action is in breach of the [Race Relations] Act.”
SPSC welcomes the First Minister’s statements placing the issue of anti-Semitism in perspective and sharply discriminating between opposition to the brutal crimes of Israel and anti-Semitism. This is especially welcome given the UK Government’s sinister agenda of conflating opposition to the State of Israel with racism/anti-Semitism. This dangerous conflation is now encountering clear and unambiguous opposition from Scottish legal and political figures.
Scottish PSC has successfully seen off false, malicious politically-driven allegations of anti-Semitism from Scottish Zionists who seek constantly to vilify supporters of Palestinian human rights as racists. This is pretty sick coming from those who support every racist atrocity committed by Israel.
Mick Napier
28 May 2010
Salmond: Scots Jews are not persecuted by Leon Symons, Jewish Chronicle, 27 May 2010