SCoJeC Chair Micheline Brannan has written to the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament to protest about an attempt to have her and two colleagues removed from a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Group on Palestine on 25 April. Philip Chetwynd, Treasurer of the Cross Party Group, referred to the three observers as ‘representatives of Zionist organisations’, called them ‘ideological terrorists’, and he said he felt intimidated by their presence. He had been intending to lead a discussion in the Group about the definition of antisemitism in Scotland – although this was not on the published agenda – but said he would not give his presentation because of the presence of the three observers.
After a short discussion, in which four Members of the Scottish Parliament stated that they could not support excluding anyone from the Group, and in which several speakers expressed concern that it looked as if Jewish people were being targeted, the consensus of the Group was that they should be allowed to remain. The agenda item was not discussed.
Commenting on the incident, Micheline Brannan, Chair of SCoJeC, said:
