AN SNP MSP has said that the Israel Defense Forces should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation – rather than Palestine Action.
James Dornan, MSP for Cathcart, lodged a motion with the Scottish Parliament on June 25, where he said that Palestine Action are a “non-violent campaigning organisation”.
Palestine Action lost a late-night Court of Appeal challenge on Friday evening, which sought to stop it being banned, less than two hours before the move came into force at midnight.
The designation as a terror group means that membership of or support for Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
It comes after SNP MP Brendan O’Hara set out why the SNP abstained on the vote to proscribe the group in the House of Commons.
Dornan’s motion, which was submitted before the proscription order came into effect, was described as “antisemitic” by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
In his motion, Dornan set out that Palestine Action are now proscribed alongside international terror organisations including Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, and the Irish Republican Army, among others.
The motion adds that “all of these groups have, unlike Palestine Action, at some stage taken part in violent action”.
The move to ban Palestine Action was announced after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, which police claimed caused around £7 million of damage.
Dornan’s motion adds that the decision is “an overreaction” from the UK Government that appears to have been “embarrassed by the actions of Palestine Action and terrified to show anything but utter compliance and subservience to the Israeli government in what it sees as its ongoing ethnic cleansing of Gaza”.
The motion says that this also applies to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite the warrant for his arrest for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
It continues: “Urges the Home Secretary to let the justice system deal with any ongoing criminal offences potentially committed by Palestine Action during reported events at RAF Brize Norton, and to proscribe only those organisations that, it considers, really do, or did, cause a threat to life, such as the Israel Defense Forces.”
The motion was backed by former SNP housing minister Paul McLennan and former international development minister Ben Macpherson. Other SNP MSPs Evelyn Tweed, Stephanie Callaghan and Stuart McMillan were joined by four Scottish Green MSPs, outgoing co-leader Patrick Harvie, Maggie Chapman, Ross Greer and Mark Ruskell.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action on June 23, stating that the vandalism of the two planes was “disgraceful” and that the group had a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage”.
MPs in the Commons voted 385 to 26, majority 359, in favour of proscribing the group on Wednesday, before the House of Lords backed the move without a vote on Thursday.
The SNP abstained on the vote – with Argyll and Bute MP O’Hara stating that they would have opposed the ban had the UK Government not included two neo-Nazi organisations – Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement.
Speaking in The Sunday Times Michael Wegier, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Dornan’s motion was “ludicrous” and that the IDF was defending Israel.
“If the IDF did not exist, Israel would cease to exist,” Wegier said. “Had the IDF not existed since Israel was created in 1948, there would be no Israel.
“So the only implication of this motion is that it is calling for the dissolution of the state of Israel, which is clearly antisemitic.”
He added that there is a “distinction” between criticising the Israeli government and “calling for Israel’s dissolution”, which Wegier argued proscribing the IDF would do.
Asked whether the SNP backed Dornan’s motion and to set out its position on the proscription of Palestine Action, a spokesperson said: “Since the beginning of this conflict, the SNP has been consistent in calling for an immediate ceasefire by all parties, the unconditional release of hostages, an end to UK arms sales to Israel and the recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state as part of a two-state solution to secure a lasting peace.
“The focus of the international community must be in ensuring that peace is delivered, that humanitarian aid is delivered unimpeded to those who need it and that the international rule of law is enforced.”
