THE First Minister has urged MSPs not to “weaponise” issues such as anti-Semitism for “petty, party political reasons”.
Nicola Sturgeon was responding to calls from Scottish Labour to suspend SNP councillors who shared a link to a Grouse Beater blog post attacking GMB official Rhea Wolfson over her role in public sector strikes in Glasgow.
The article referenced Hitler “accusing ‘the Jew’ of gradually assuming leadership of the trade union movement”.
The author, Gareth Wardell, who denied claims of anti-Semitism, has now been suspended by the SNP. Meanwhile West Lothian councillor Frank Anderson has apologised after he was criticised for sharing a link to the post on social media.
Addressing the issue during First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon said: “The author of that blog was suspended from SNP membership earlier this week. Obviously there will be due process that has to be gone through, so I won’t say any more about that at this stage.
“What I will say is that the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definitions around anti-Semitism will be used in the consideration of that disciplinary complaint.
“The SNP councillor in question has written to the young woman who has been mentioned today with an unreserved apology, fully recognising that he made a significant error of judgment and that that error of judgment arose out of a lack of understanding and knowledge.”
She said she had discussed the issue with members of the Jewish community during a trip to Auschwitz on Tuesday this week.
“When people get things wrong because of a lack of understanding or knowledge, it is sometimes important that we give them a chance to learn, because education and learning are an important part of combating anti-Semitism, intolerance and racism of all forms.
“The SNP is responsible for the decisions that we take on those matters and is answerable for those decisions, but in all such matters, we have consulted the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, and we have done so this week in relation to the appropriate response to the situation,” she said.
“The final point that I want to make on this is equally important. I could stand here right now and run through a whole list of alleged failures by Labour or other parties to take these things seriously and, indeed, to act as seriously as we have done this week. However, I am not going to do that because, although in a democracy it is really important that we hold each other to account, check each other’s behaviour and call out unacceptable behaviour ... it is equally important that we do not rush to weaponise these things against each other for petty party-political reasons. We are all guilty of that sometimes.
“Fundamentally, it is really important we stand united in saying antisemitism, racism, bigotry and intolerance in any form are completely unacceptable... On these issues there is a lot more that unites all of us than divides us. We would probably do a greater service to the memory of those whom we have been discussing and to future generations if we took the time to stand in solidarity on these issues as much as we choose to divide.”
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