Dear First Minister,
Thank you for meeting representatives of the Jewish community in Scotland yesterday.
We welcome your stated commitment to the safety and well-being of our community.
You also indicated at our meeting that you planned to make an intervention tomorrow, Wednesday 3rd September, relating to your view that Israel is engaged in the commission of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
As recognised during our meeting, the language used in public discourse matters greatly. In consequence, those who lead our country and our community have an especially significant role in setting the tone of public debate, including ensuring that they use language carefully and responsibly.
In light of this shared recognition, it is important to us to bring to your attention our concerns about the implications of such a proposed intervention for us and our community.
It is indisputable that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire. It is equally beyond debate that both Israel and Hamas bear responsibility for this tragic situation. For you to assert as First Minister of Scotland that Israel is engaged in a genocidal campaign against Palestinians, however, would, in our view, be irresponsible.
Ultimately, of course, only a competent court may determine whether and if so how the Genocide Convention may have been breached by Israel.
More seriously in local terms, however, while any position you or the Scottish Government might take on the matter is unlikely to have any impact on the situation in Gaza, it is likely to have significant negative implications for our community here in Scotland.
In particular, setting out a stance likely to be publicly perceived simply and without qualification as anti-Israel, without drawing any distinction between the state of Israel and its current leadership, or acknowledging the continuing culpability of Hamas, is likely to have a far greater and more immediate impact locally, fuelling “antizionist” – and antisemitic – hatred and discrimination against Scotland’s Jews and our institutions and symbols, than it is on the situation in the Middle East, let alone in Westminster.
Indeed, it would be a tragic irony were our communal institutions, including Scotland’s only Jewish primary school, required to upgrade security provision in consequence of interventions by the Scottish Government and its leadership.
Like you, the vast majority of Jews around the world are Zionists – supporters of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. Moreover, and again like you, our community and our institutions are committed to the realisation of a two-state solution, with a secure Israel existing alongside a viable Palestinian state.
Rather than risk increasing fear, anxiety, and trauma in our community, we would respectfully ask you to work with us to promote that vision in a principled, pragmatic, and constructive manner.
We thank you again for your engagement and for your continued commitment to the dignity and safety of all communities in Scotland.
Yours faithfully,
Timothy Lovat
Chair, Jewish Council of Scotland |
