JOHN Swinney is facing calls from within his own party to confront Donald Trump over the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
It comes ahead of the US president’s visit to Scotland this week, where he is set to visit his golf courses as well as meet with the First Minister and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Nadia El-Nakla, SNP councillor and the wife of the former first minister Humza Yousaf, is also the convener of the party’s Friends of Palestine group ([[SNP]] FOP).
Now, she has told The Times that Swinney should “demand” that Trump “compel” Israel to end the suffering of Palestinians.
El-Nakla (below with Yousaf) said that, while SNP FOP agrees with Swinney meeting with Trump, it must be used to put pressure on the US president.
“Of course, the First Minister should meet with President Trump. This is a critical opportunity to raise, directly and unequivocally, the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” she said.
“Time is not on the side of the people there. As I speak, my family — like millions of others — is starving. The First Minister must demand that Trump use his influence to compel Israel to end the starvation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”
It comes as more than 100 aid organisations warned of “mass starvation” in Gaza with more than two million people facing shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of brutal bombardment by Israel.
The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US-and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect sidelining the existing UN-led system.
