Palestinians in Scotland

AS Palestinians in Scotland we feel the need to be able to tell our story of being driven from our homeland in a programme of ethnic cleansing that built the state of Israel on the destruction of our villages and towns.

The Scottish Government’s adoption of the problematic IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of anti-semitism limits that freedom by protecting the state of Israel from democratic critiques of its widely recognised apartheid structures.

Responding in part to the question of the IHRA definition, Lord Bracadale’s 2018 Review of Hate Crime Legislation accepted the case put forward by Palestinians and others that legislation should not protect “political entities” since that could lead to the “curtailment of freedom of expression and freedom of political debate”.

Will the Scottish Government act on this finding of the Bracadale hate crime review which it commissioned?

Amina Abdel-khaliq, Hamilton; Dr Nur Abdelkhaleq, Edinburgh; Waseem Abu Aghlain, Edinburgh; Dr. Kholoud Ajarma, Edinburgh; and 26 others.