SCOTTISH Labour have suggested they will not suspend one of their newly elected MSPs after calls for action from a body representing Scotland’s Jewish community.
Anas Sarwar had been urged to sanction Irshad Ahmed, a former SNP and Alba candidate who was elected for Labour at the top of the Edinburgh and Lothians East, after his comments about Israel.
Ahmed, in a speech at a Pakistani cultural centre in January 2024, said he would pray that Israel would “get a crushing defeat”, according to a translation from Urdu by The Telegraph.
Timothy Lovat, the chair of the Jewish Council of Scotland, said: “Any support or incitement calling for the destruction of Israel or the death of Israelis should be considered the same as a call for the destruction of any country.
“This is entirely unacceptable from anyone, but from someone purporting to be in a position of power is inexcusable.
“There is a clear and present danger to the Jewish community in Scotland encouraged directly by rhetoric like this and we expect our leaders including Anas Sarwar and all of our friends in the Scottish Parliament to take appropriate steps to ensure that there is no place for this type of hate in our society.”
In the Scottish Parliament elections on May 7, Labour tied for second place with Reform UK, with both parties returning 17 MSPs.
The draw means that if either Sarwar or Reform UK’s Scottish leader Malcolm Offord decide to suspend one of their parliamentarians, they will also have to accept becoming Holyrood’s third party.
Reform UK’s Thomas Kerr wrote to Sarwar about what he called “antisemitic comments”.
“Irshad Ahmed’s remarks are wholly inappropriate for any elected representative,” Kerr said. “MSPs have a duty to promote responsible discourse, not rhetoric which risks inflaming hatred or legitimising extremism.
“The events of October 7 were among the most barbaric terrorist attacks in recent history. Thousands of innocent Israeli people were murdered, kidnapped, and terrorised by Hamas.
“Given the above and in your role as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, we ask that you take immediate action by removing the Labour whip from Mr Ahmed pending a full investigation into these remarks.”
Responding for Scottish Labour, Ahmed said: “All lives should be valued equally and I want people in both Israel and Palestine to be able to live in peace and security.
"I want to see stability in the region and a two-state solution that provides lasting peace.”
Sarwar, meanwhile, told reporters at Holyrood: "He's clarified his comments and I think we just again have to be really, really careful.
"There have been other politicians in this parliament who have said the exact same thing in English and a presumption is made because someone is speaking in a different language or from a different faith or a different colour. I think people need to be very, very careful about making those presumptions because I think there's other things at play."
Israel is widely accused of committing genocide in Palestine, including by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) and leading human rights groups such as Amnesty and B'Tselem.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
