ON a warm summer’s night last August, John Swinney took to the stage at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for a fireside chat with former Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford. Two of the most seasoned veterans of the devolution era, Swinney and Drakeford talked of the importance of “collaborative” politics.
Then a piercing cry rang through the auditorium. “Your party is mingling with genocidal deputy ambassadors,” a young woman shouted.
The event was swiftly ended, and the protester hustled out. She might well have been disappointed to see the First Minister on stage. Until days before, the man whom she accused of “mingling” with the Israeli government, Angus Robertson, had been due to appear instead.
The photograph of Robertson with the beaming Daniela Grudsky, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UK, had that month rocked the Scottish Government and created a schism within the SNP.
Robertson faced loud calls to quit his role as the Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs. Critics argued the meeting was a “breach of trust” when Israel stood accused of grave breaches of international law in Gaza, and with its prime minister then under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Israel denies claims it is committing war crimes or perpetrating genocide in Gaza, and rejects the jurisdiction of the ICC, which issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes charges in November 2024.
A year on, despite the intense furore around the meeting, the public still knows little on how it came about or what was discussed.
Now The Ferret can shed new light on the affair, revealing details of previously withheld internal emails, WhatsApp chats and partial minutes of the meeting. They show ministers, advisers and officials across Swinney’s government were entangled.
And we can reveal that while publicly stating that the “UK is in danger of being complicit in killing innocent civilians”, behind the scenes, the Scottish Government tried to set up an earlier meeting with Swinney and the ambassador and was talking itself up as a “critical friend” of Israel.
In response to this story, Robertson told The Ferret that under the “abhorrent circumstances” Gazans face “at the hands of the Israeli government”, the Scottish Government is “unequivocal that it would not be appropriate to meet with the Israeli government” until “real progress has been made towards peace”.
Our findings come after a 10-month freedom of information (FoI) battle, which involved challenges to the Scottish Information Commissioner and claims from the Scottish Government that releasing details of the meeting could damage UK-Israeli relations and even be seen as “antisemitic”.
Swinney ‘actively sought a meeting’ with Israeli ambassador
On May 8, 2024, John Swinney took office as Scotland’s First Minister. For his predecessor, Humza Yousaf, the Palestinian cause had been close to home – his own parents-in-law had been visiting relatives in Gaza when the Israeli bombardment began in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1200 people. More than 250 hostages were also taken.
Swinney quickly faced criticism over a perceived lack of action on the issue. The Scottish Greens called on the new First Minister “to demonstrate that Scotland’s solidarity with the people of Palestine extends to action, not just words” and, in response, the Government reiterated Yousaf’s call for a ceasefire and for the UK Government to ban arms exports to Israel.
Swinney followed up with a tweet on May 27, stating that the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza was “one of the greatest moral issues of our time”.
But secret emails show that just a week later, on June 3, a Scottish Government official emailed the Israeli Embassy, looking to speak to “someone urgently to make arrangements” for a meeting between Swinney and Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely (below), while she was in Scotland.
The embassy’s Israel-Scotland affairs officer advised this visit was no longer going ahead because of “sudden security threats”, but that the ambassador was “eager to meet with the First Minister virtually”.
Later that day, the embassy emailed a ‘list of attendees’ for a meeting which included Hotovely, the embassy’s head of civil society Hodaya Avzada, and the Israel Scotland affairs officer. Some other names are redacted.
Asked about these exchanges, the Scottish Government said the meeting referenced in the “list of attendees” did not go ahead and no meetings with representatives of the Israeli government took place before August 8.
But Scottish Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba argued this was evidence Swinney’s government had “actively sought a meeting with a representative of a state whose prime minister is now wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity”.
On July 30, a Scottish Government official’s phone pinged with a WhatsApp message from embassy official Avzada. “Hope you’re well?” she asked. “We should get back to you today re DCM [deputy chief of mission] visit,” the official replied. “Apols for delay.”
Discussions had progressed, and a trip to Scotland was being arranged for the deputy ambassador – or DCM – Daniela Grudsky. “It is next week and the schedule is filling,” Avzada said.
Less than two hours later, an official emailed Angus Robertson, copying in Swinney, recommending that he meet with Grudsky – and warning of “sensitivities” over the Gaza war. Azvada asked via WhatsApp if there was “any chance we could meet” Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes as well, but was told: “FM isn’t available, so Mr Robertson is the right interlocutor.”
‘Transparency takes up so much time’
As soon as the meeting was firmed up for August 8, discussions turned to communications management. “We’d normally issue a short statement for transparency’s sake,” the Scottish Government official told Avzada. “But let me know if you have any security considerations, esp around timing.”
It was agreed there would be no announcement of the meeting until the Monday following, August 12. Avzada made sure to double-check that the embassy could issue the tweet that would ultimately ignite the whole controversy, and was told: “Yeah that’s fine.”
The Scottish official then told Avzada: “You’ll be aware we are usually inundated with freedom of information requests. Practically every meeting our ministers have is FOI’d. We redact sensitive information, but the bar is high, and we have to justify it. The FOIs are usually inspired by comms but if we don’t issue something, we’re criticised for being secretive!”
The official added: “Transparency is obviously a good thing, but it takes up such a lot of our time.”
In her official response, Avzada said the embassy did “not consent” to the release of information about meetings, “in order to allow the fruitful and open discourse between Israel and the United Kingdom”. This would later be echoed, almost word for word, by the Scottish Government in its reasoning for denying The Ferret’s FOI requests.
Subsequent emails show that the Scottish Government provided further updates on FOI requests to the Israeli Embassy after the meeting, which reiterated its position that no information should be released.
Amnesty International told The Ferret that it appeared the Scottish Government already had “one eye” on the challenges that requests for transparency would create for them, even before the meeting took place.
Meanwhile, Talat Yaqoob, an equality campaigner and researcher who has worked in the Scottish Parliament, said it was “extraordinary that a foreign government would get any say over what the Scottish public is permitted to know about the work of its own elected officials”.
“Freedom of information law exists to enable accountability – it is not something to attempt to circumvent or over-complicate,” she added.
The Scottish Government said it had complied fully with the Scottish Information Commissioner and pointed out that information can be withheld under freedom of information law if it could substantially prejudice relations between the UK and another country.
‘Critical friends’?
After public anger had erupted around the meeting, Swinney tweeted on August 14 that it had been “accepted on the basis it would provide an opportunity to convey our consistent position on the killing and suffering of innocent civilians in the region”.
But the Scottish Government had already put out a statement saying that the attendees had also discussed “areas of mutual interest, including culture, renewable energy, and engaging the country’s respective diasporas”.
In the redacted minutes released to The Ferret, much of the section on “Israel/Scotland relations” is blacked out. But the minutes do state: “The Scottish Government’s position remained that the Palestinian people had the right to self-determination and that a secure Israel should be able to live in peace and security. There was value in dialogue between Scotland and Israel as critical friends.”
While Swinney publicly referenced the “killing and suffering of civilians”, the minutes suggest that Robertson adopted a more reserved tone with Grudsky, noting that “every effort must be taken to reduce civilian casualties”.
MSP Villalba claimed the minutes showed the Scottish Government’s private attitude to Israel was “quite different” to its public stance.
She added that her constituents were organising weekly protests against what they see as UK complicity in the war in Gaza. They would be asking whether Robertson still believed Scotland could be “critical friends” with a country currently facing genocide allegations at the International Court of Justice, Villalba claimed.
In a “profound apology” issued to delegates at the SNP conference on September 1, after heavy criticism from within the party, Robertson said one of the Government’s priorities for the meeting was to express its support for an “end of UK arms being sent to Israel”. But there is no mention of this in the minutes released.
Yaqoob said it was a failure of leadership that arms sales do not appear to have been addressed. She said the apparent omission was a “dereliction of duty” given the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The aftermath
At 2.37pm on August 12, the Scottish Government posted about the meeting on its international division’s Twitter/X account. Barely anyone noticed – perhaps unsurprising, given the account only has 4500 followers.
At 5.36pm, Grudsky posted her own now infamous tweet, complete with the picture of the pair by an art deco fireplace in St Andrew’s House. She said they had discussed “the unique commonalities between” Scotland and Israel and “emphasised the urgent need to bring back our 115 hostages”. There was no mention of a ceasefire call. “Looking forward to co-operating in the fields of technology, culture and renewable energy,” Grudsky added.
Over the next few days, dissent began to bubble in the SNP ranks. Backbench MSPs Kevin Stewart, Christine Grahame and Emma Roddick all put their heads above the parapet.
On August 14, Swinney issued his statement on Twitter/X, but Robertson himself laid low. A Scottish Government official emailed the Edinburgh Book Festival to give “a quick heads up that FM will now be attending” the event with Drakeford – instead of Robertson.
On the morning of Monday, August 19 – with the “ongoing public controversy” having continued to rage over the weekend – Swinney called Robertson in for a meeting. “They discussed the history of the issue and noted the public remarks of MSPs, MPs and commentators,” records released to The Ferret reveal.
“They reflected on the need to address the concerns raised by the meeting around the Scottish Government’s position on the relationship with the Israeli government. In particular, they noted the need to be more clear that the Scottish Government did not believe that ‘normal’ relations with the Israeli government were currently possible given the events in Gaza and the position of the ICC.”
They also agreed it was time for Robertson to break his silence – and issue his original apology. This was circulated among officials and redrafted by international relations deputy director John Primrose, and Swinney’s special adviser, Jack Middleton.
In the wake of the controversy, the Government ruled out further meetings with Israeli diplomats until progress has been made in Gaza peace talks.
But arms firms supplying Israel continue to receive subsidies from the Scottish Government. It is only thanks to repeated FOI requests from The Ferret and other media outlets that this information has entered the public domain.
And there are details of the meeting between Grudsky and Robertson, which remain hidden from public view, including the discussions they held about the other topics which are redacted in the minutes released.
“It is squarely in the public interest to have absolute clarity on whether the cabinet secretary presented a strong challenge to the deputy ambassador over war crimes and violations of international law in Gaza when they met,” said Amnesty’s Liz Thomson.
“Just months before that meeting took place, Amnesty asked Robertson for a clear framework on how human rights considerations inform international engagement and raised concerns that the Scottish Government’s action wasn’t matching its rhetoric. Such guidance is clearly needed to inform all external affairs activity.”
Labour’s Villalba was more direct. “We need answers – and we need them now,” she said.
In a statement provided to The Ferret, Robertson, said: “Close to 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza [some estimates say the death toll is higher] – many more are now being left to starve at the hands of the Israeli government.
“Civilians who queue to access what little humanitarian aid is permitted to enter Gaza are frequently shot at and killed by Israeli Defence Forces.
“The rhetoric of Israeli politicians has become increasingly extreme in recent months.
“Under such abhorrent circumstances, the Scottish Government is unequivocal that it would not be appropriate to meet with the Israeli government.
“This will remain our position until real progress has been made towards peace and Israel co-operates fully with its international obligations on the investigation of genocide and war crimes.”
At the Book Festival that night, Swinney said that devolution had “strengthened the self-confidence of Scotland”. Over two decades of self-government, Scotland has become more visible on the international stage.
But to critics, the Robertson affair has exposed serious gaps in transparency and accountability about how – and with whom – Scotland does diplomacy.
The Embassy of Israel in London did not respond to requests for a comment.
