LABOUR have been accused of a “new low” by the SNP after it emerged that several of the party’s MPs visited Israel on a lobbying trip despite the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The National previously reported that the party's most prominent pro-Israel group, Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), sent a delegation of parliamentarians to the country last week.
This included LFI chair Jon Pearce, as well as fellow Labour MPs Cat Eccles, Kevin McKenna, Peter Prinsley, Mark Sewards and Labour peer Luciana Berger.
Israel's actions in Gaza have been described as genocide by leading international experts including Amnesty International, UN special rapporteur to the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, and the UN special committee investigating Israel's action in Palestine.
The International Court of Justice has also said that there is a plausible risk of Palestinians' right to be protected from genocide being violated.
But this didn’t stop the Labour MPs from smiling and being pictured with a host of Israeli officials over the course of the four-day delegation (below), including president Isaac Herzog.
Herzog has previously been criticised after photographs showed him signing Israeli bombs set to be dropped on Gaza.
His comments in the wake of the October 7 attack were also cited in South Africa’s International Court of Justice case as expressing genocidal intent.
Meanwhile, they also met with deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel, Israel’s Leader of the Opposition, Yair Lapid, as well as with Yair Golan, leader of Labour’s sister party, the Democrats.
Golan said in October 2023: “I think that in this battle, it is forbidden to allow a humanitarian effort. We need to say to them: listen, until the [captives] are released, from our side, you can die from starvation. It’s totally legitimate.”
Now, the SNP have hit out at Labour over the trip, saying it is a “new low” for the party.
"The Labour Party has repeatedly found themselves on the wrong side of the appalling destruction and slaughter of Gaza and the Palestinian people. But Labour MPs posing for pictures with these individuals is a new low,” the party’s Middle East spokesperson Brendan O’Hara said.
"Children are starving to death in Gaza and the Labour Government continues to allow the sale of component parts for the jets that bomb them to pieces - all the while too many Labour MPs sit silent and now we see some of them all smiles with the very state dropping the bombs.”
He added: “It is brutally and blatantly clear that the Netanyahu Government will continue to act with impunity unless and until there are consequences for their actions - smiling for pictures with these men does exactly the opposite and people in Scotland will be appalled."
Labour have been approached for comment.
