On Monday 19th August Angus Robertson, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, in the Scottish Government issued a statement in which he ‘apologised’ for holding a covert meeting with the Deputy Israeli Ambassador.

Who was Angus Robertson apologising to ?

Was it to 10-year-old Shahed Awda Talla who stopped to play with her friends beside the cake shop in Gaza’s Al-Maghazi refugee camp and was killed by an Israeli drone strike?

When the First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, came on TV to defend Angus Robertson and the covert meeting with the Israeli Deputy First Minister where not only the situation in Gaza was discussed but deepening relations between Scotland and the Apartheid state of Israeli, sharing our extensive expertise in renewables, and exploring other means of co-operating with a state currently illegally occupying Palestine and committing genocide in Gaza, was John Swinney thinking of 14-year-old Ghassan Gharib Hussein Zahran who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the central occupied West Bank ?

Ghassan Gharib Hussein Zahran, 14, was shot and killed around 2 p.m. on July 9 in the Palestinian village of Deir Abu Mashal, west of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank. He was out playing with his friends.

Thousands of children have been killed in Gaza since the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7th 2023. Save the Children estimate it as at least 1 in every 50 children have been killed. Thousands more have been injured, many with limbs amputated, and no one knows how many more lie buried beneath the rubble of the decimated buildings. Countless numbers have been illegally ‘detained’ by Israeli forces, captured and taken to prison camps.

Apologies not accepted Angus Robertson and John Swinney.

The meeting which Angus Robertson held in secret with the Israeli ambassador included discussions around cooperation between the two countries in technology, culture, and renewable energy flies in the face of the decision taken by the World’s Court. In July 2024 the International Court of Justice found that :

• the State of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful;
• the State of Israel is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible;
•  the State of Israel is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
• the State of Israel has the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
•  all States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
• international organizations, including the United Nations, are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
•  the United Nations, and especially the General Assembly, which requested this opinion, and the Security Council, should consider the precise modalities and further action required to bring to an end as rapidly as possible the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Fiona Grahame