FM: Continuing arms sales to Israel ‘beyond comprehension’
HUMZA Yousaf said last night that it is “beyond comprehension” that the UK Government has not halted arms sales to Israel. The First Minister also said an independent Scotland could play a key role in brokering peace in conflicts such as that in Gaza – just as Norway did with the Oslo Accords, as he spoke about the “horrendous” ordeals his family in Palestine are going through.
Speaking exclusively to The National, the First Minister said the UK Government’s continued arms exports to Israel were “beyond comprehension” given the killing of three British citizens by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).
He spoke of the plight his family are going through in Gaza in a wideranging interview conducted as our reporter Steph Brawn shadows the First Minister on the campaign trail in the Highlands and Islands.
Yousaf said his wife Nadia El-Nakla had relatives both in northern Gaza
– “where the communication is very, very difficult” – and in the centre and south of the war-torn region.
“It is an utterly horrific situation, beyond anybody’s worst nightmare. For all of the difficult scenes that we’ve witnessed on the news, the situation is far worse for people given it’s their everyday reality,” he said.
“It’s really indescribable the inhumanity of it. They are desperate for clean water, desperate for food.
“I know, for example, that one of our family members is pretty ill with a stomach issue that’s been long standing. They can’t get the medicine anymore, that is gone, so she’s in chronic pain as well as facing food and water shortages.
“Where they live in north Gaza has been completely decimated so a number of the family have actually moved into refugee camps because their houses don’t exist anymore. It is just a horrendous situation.”
Yousaf said that watching the plight of not just his family but the 2.2 million other people in Gaza was made “even more difficult” by the fact that the UK and the wider international community are “unwilling to stop it”.
“There’s not enough pressure being exerted on Israel to immediately stop,” the First Minister said.
“Of course, there has to be more pressure for an immediate ceasefire. We are talking days after three British citizens have been killed – not died, not passed away – killed by the IDF.
“And yet the UK Government is still selling Israel arms and still not calling for an immediate ceasefire. It is beyond comprehension.”
Israel has said it killed seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity, including three Brits, by accident. However, independent analysis has shown that all three vehicles were targeted separately and deliberately.
The First Minister said he would like to see whoever is in power at Westminster, be it Labour or the Conservatives, adopt a “foreign policy that absolutely has justice, compassion and humanity at its very core”.
He suggested this would be the position of an independent Scottish Government, going on: “Look, for