AN MP who worked in a Gaza hospital has praised a former police chief who gave up his MBE over the UK Government’s stance on the Middle East conflict.
Dr Philippa Whitford said Joe Grant, the former general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), made a “strong statement” by handing back the medal and title he was awarded in 2009.
The SNP MP worked at the Al-Ahli hospital in Palestine in the early 1990s with the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians and has returned regularly to promote better standards in breast cancer treatment and carry out surgery while establishing strong links between Gaza and the Scottish NHS.
Whitford said Grant’s “honourable move” was particularly powerful coming from someone who used to be in the police, given some of criticism has been levelled at the policing of marches in support of Palestine.
Grant hit out at the UK Government for “staying silent” and not calling for a ceasefire, while raising concerns about the “prosecuting of dissenting voice” in Scotland and the UK.
Whitford told The National: “I think it’s a very honourable move and impressive.
“For any individual, an honour is a big recognition of work they have done, so to give it up is a big deal and to give it up to make this point is really important.
“I think it’s quite a strong statement, particularly to the establishment who value these kind of things and will be shocked anyone would give up an MBE.
“I think it’s also strong from someone in the police when some of the criticism has been around how marches have been policed. The Public Order Act has allowed this aggressive policing to take place when it comes to protests and it’s great to have someone [who was] within the police service speaking up.
“What we are watching is one of the worst things any of us have seen in our lifetimes and yet we just see our politicians saying Israel has the right to defend itself. Of course it does, but can you look at any of this and describe it as defence?”
Born in Coatbridge, Grant retired and moved to South Africa in 2009, the same year he was awarded an MBE.
He first joined Strathclyde Police in 1981 before going on to serve as general secretary of the SPF, the body which represents some 18,000 police officers across Scotland, from 2005 to 2008.
He said: “As a kid, a progressive teacher at my primary school in Coatbridge had us each knit a blanket square, which we put together and sent off to Nelson Mandela, who was at that time in jail.
“Now, I live in South Africa, I have since 2009. So I'm conscientised to apartheid and the effects are still existing almost 30 years after the end of apartheid here.
“So, me returning the medal is my current-day blanket square.”
Grant said receiving his MBE had been a “special moment” for him and his family but insisted its symbolism “had to go”.
Green MSP Maggie Chapman applauded him for the decision
She said: "Joe Grant has taken a bold stance.
"It is rare for former police chiefs to take these kinds of public stances on human rights issues, and it shows the depth of opposition to the horror that is being inflicted on the people of Gaza.
"The UK Government has not just been weak and cowardly; it has been utterly complicit in the destruction. We don't just need to see an end to the bombardment, we need to ensure it never happens again."
Whitford – who learned out the Al-Ahli hospital had been bombed on October 17 just as she was due to have a webinar with colleagues at the facility – said Christmas and Hogmanay celebrations had felt somewhat “hollow” this year amid the continuing atrocities in the Middle East.
Before the turn of the year, she told The National’s Holyrood Weekly podcast that the UK Government will have “no moral position” to criticise Vladimir Putin or “any kind of authoritarian government” in future when it has failed to call for a ceasefire and condemn Israel’s response to Hamas’ attacks of October 7.
She added: “Other genocides in history, whether you’re talking about the Nazi Holocaust or Cambodia or Srebrenica or Rwanda, we often only really found out the gory details afterwards, whereas all of us are watching this on our phones day by day. There will be no hiding place after this.
“One colleague from when I worked there [Gaza] in the 1990s, he lost three children and three grandchildren and almost 50 members of his extended family who were sheltering in his house. He’s now in Egypt with what’s left of his family.
“What we are watching is utterly appalling and yet our politicians at Westminster of the Conservative Government and the formal Labour opposition are giving us a word salad, as Stephen Flynn [SNP Westminster leader] put it. They are not willing to condemn what we are seeing.”
The total number of people killed in Gaza since the start of Israel's retaliatory campaign had reached more than 22,400 by Thursday – comprising almost 1% of the enclave's 2.3 million population, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Israel's offensive started after Hamas gunmen launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing 1200 people and taking about 240 people hostage.
