A senior minister in the Israeli government has criticised the SNP-led Scottish Government’s position on his country as “the harshest in Europe”.
Michael Oren, a historian who is now deputy minister in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, also accused the Scottish Government of “gratuitously misreading” international law when it described Israel’s attacks on Gaza as “disproportionate”.
Oren spoke to the Herald at the Knesset – Israel’s Parliament – in Jerusalem last week as rockets fell on Israeli towns and cities.
The barrage of almost 500 rockets from Gaza followed a botched spying mission by Israeli forces which left eight dead. Israel responded to the rockets with air strikes at more than 70 sites in Gaza. The violence was the worst in the region since the 50-day conflict in 2014.
In August 2014 then Minister for External Affairs Humza Yousaf condemned rocket attacks from Gaza but added that Israel’s response was “disproportionate”.
His assessment was based on the death toll in Gaza, where 2,251 people died, including 1,462 civilians. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians died.
Michael Oren MK (Member of the Knesset) said: “I understand the Scottish Government has taken a position on us which is probably the harshest of any political party in Europe. They vie with some of the Swedish parties and the Irish parties.
“But let me say about (Yousaf’s comments on) disproportionality. First of all, it is a gross misreading of international law. I studied international law. Disproportionality says very simply that an army can only use the force necessary to meet the threat. If we use a certain amount of force and rockets continue to fall on our territory then the force cannot be disproportionate, just cannot by definition.
“So, it’s a gross misreading and I would say a gratuitous misreading of disproportionality principles. We are in fact, if anything, under proportion in our use of force.
“Many other societies, most other societies, would use a reckless amount of force to stop rockets falling on civilians. We have not done that. We have the power, boy we have the power. We could end it very quickly.”
Human Rights organisation Amnesty issued a report on Israel earlier this year which accused the government of “collectively punishing Gaza’s entire population” with an air, land and sea blockade.
The blockade has triggered a humanitarian crisis with electricity cuts affecting clean water and sanitation and diminishing health service access. The blockade has rendered Gaza increasingly “unliveable”, according to the United Nations.
Oren said: “I know this is difficult but when you think about Gaza you have to throw out everything you know about everything in human affairs. I’ll give you examples. Hamas (the governing authority) wants to keep a low light on the humanitarian crisis there but it burnt down a crossing to Gaza three times. It burnt fuel lines to a population which is in any case only getting three hours a day of electricity.
“And by the way Hamas has 24/7 electricity in its tunnels and its bunkers and headquarters. No problems there with electricity, no problems with water.”
The Scottish Government said its position on the situation in Gaza “was and continues to be in line with much mainstream international opinion”.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government added: “More generally, we support international efforts to bring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on working towards a two-state solution.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel