A Scottish National Party member of the Scottish Parliament (SNP MSP) has had the party whip removed following “utterly abhorrent” comments about the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The party confirmed it has taken action following social media comments from Glasgow Shettleston Scottish Parliament member John Mason.
The whip has been removed with “immediate effect,” officials said.
It comes after Mason reacted to criticism over Scottish External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson’s meeting with Israel’s deputy ambassador Daniela Grudsky.
Mason had also met with the Israeli ambassador and attracted fury from members of his own party after he posted on social media: “If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed 10 times as many.”
His post was in response to former SNP MSP Sandra White, who said: “We know what Israelis hope to achieve, they are already committing genocide in Gaza”, adding that “innocent children are being massacred."
“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," a party spokesperson said of Mason's removal.
“The chief whip has today withdrawn the whip from John Mason MSP with immediate effect, pending internal Parliamentary group due process. The SNP group will now meet to discuss the matter, with a recommendation that the whip be suspended from John Mason for a fixed period of time because of this utterly abhorrent comment,” the party spokesperson said.
Mason said he is “disappointed” at his suspension and that it will “work its way through the party process in the usual way”.
Writing in a post on Facebook after the move was announced, Mason said that his “primary desire in relation to Israel and Gaza is that there should be peace talks, negotiations and, eventually, peace."
He said: “Too many lives have already been lost in Israel, Gaza and beyond, and as I said when I spoke in Parliament many people feel that Israel has moved from a position of self-defense to seeking revenge.
“However, I personally do not believe that Israel has tried to commit, has committed, or is committing genocide," he said.
“They certainly have the ability to kill many more Palestinians than they have done. That is not to say that the loss of life already is not too many," he added.
Commenting on Mason’s earlier social media post, which led to the MSP being stripped of the whip, former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford criticized him, posting on X: “Forty thousand plus dead in Gaza and you tweet this. You are not fit for public office. You are an embarrassment and not fit to represent anyone. You glorify killing and murder with your obtuse comment. Just go and do it now.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said it was “right” that the SNP removed the whip from Mason.
However, he said action must be taken to address the decision for a senior minister to meet with an Israeli representative. “This cannot be the end of the issue,” he said.
“Both the Secretary of State for External Affairs and the First Minister have very serious questions to answer about when the decision was made, who made it and why. We hope this will be resolved long before the end of recess, but if not we will be demanding an urgent statement while we consider next steps.”
Scottish First Minister John Swinney said Robertson’s meeting with Grudsky was “necessary” and allowed the Scottish Government to put across the need for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza.
His intervention came after Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer accused the Scottish Government of taking a “two-faced approach” by publicly condemning the actions of Israel while conducting secret meetings.
The story is reprinted with permission from the Jewish News