JOHN Mason has said he “completely stands by” the tweet he made about Israel which saw him lose the SNP whip over the weekend.
The National previously reported that the MSP for Glasgow Shettleston lost the whip after publishing a series of posts on Twitter/X which denied a genocide was taking place in Gaza.
On Friday evening, he wrote: “If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed ten times as many.”
It was in response to former SNP MSP Sandra White, who had said “we know what Israelis hope to achieve they are already committing genocide in Gaza”.
In a separate post, Mason said: “There is no genocide. If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed many, many more.”
He told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme he had thought for a long time before sharing his opinion on social media.
Speaking on Monday morning, the MSP said: “I thought about it for a long time, and I would like to see Scotland, the UK, acting more as peacemaker, rather than cheering on either side.
“But I put out that tweet because I do feel strongly. Israel, and the Jews in this country as well, feel very much threatened and under pressure.
“Israel is a tiny country surrounded by some very hostile states. And I don’t think us talking about genocide and just running down Israel, because it does reflect on the Jews in this country as well, I think we should be concerned about that.”
He said he had not foreseen losing the whip over the comments, adding: “I’m not someone who foresees the future exactly, but sometimes you have to do the right thing and just take the consequences."
He also backed SNP MSP and External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson (above) over a meeting with the deputy Israeli ambassador to the UK – a move which has sparked criticism within the party.
We told how SNP MP and the party’s Westminster foreign affairs spokesperson Brendan O’Hara had written to Robertson expressing his anger about the meeting.
Meanwhile, the SNP’s Dalkeith branch has reportedly called on Robertson to be sacked from his role in the Cabinet.
However, when asked about the meeting, Mason said: "If we only meet people we agree with it would be a sad state of affairs. And I certainly think it’s Angus Robertson’s role to be meeting people from all around the world.
"We strongly disagree with China and their repression of minorities, and other countries as well, but we should still meet these people, still talk to them. Because again, you know, we are not going to resolve any of these problems, be it in the Middle East or in Asia or anywhere else, unless people talk to each other."
He added: "Angus Robertson previously brought people from Armenia and Azerbaijan to Scotland to try and promote peace. And I would dearly like to see Scotland being a peacemaker throughout the world, as Norway has done in the past, with some success."
When asked about the wider debate the issue had trigged within the SNP he said: "The SNP exists and is united for Scottish independence, and my hope is that we can focus on that, because clearly we are going to disagree on a range of issues, Israel being one, and other issues like assisted dying and many issues that come around.
"We have, we have a variety of views within the party, and that’s always been the case.”
