Gaza crisis tears Scotland’s independence warriors apart

LONDON — Scotland’s nationalists have a new problem: Israel.
The Scottish National Party has been embroiled in a weeks-long row after one of its top figures met an Israeli diplomat — causing fury in the ranks of the center-left party’s pro-Palestinian base.
Angus Robertson — who serves as the SNP-led Scottish government’s minister for external affairs — was pictured sporting a half-smile while standing alongside Daniela Grudsky, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the U.K, in a photo she posted on X.
The meeting was held on August 8 at the request of the Israeli government. Sluggish communications and intolerance from some quarters to the idea of meeting any representative of the Israeli government during the war in Gaza has served to create a swirling crisis.
Now fresh discontent in the ranks of a party already struggling electorally and grasping for a strategy to achieve its dream of making Scotland independent risks overshadowing its conference at the end of the month. 
The SNP is the latest progressive party to face big political problems related to the conflict in Gaza. Its plight shows the tightrope politicians around the world are walking as they seek to condemn the October 7 Hamas attacks while also speaking out about the 40,000+ Palestinians killed by the resulting Israeli assault on Gaza.
As she accepted the Democratic Party nomination Thursday night, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris received cheers as she spoke of Israel’s “right to defend itself,” coupled with her heartbreak at Palestinian “suffering.” Her words came after protesters gathered in Chicago at the start of the Democratic National Convention, the latest in a wave of demonstrations across the U.S — and much of the Western world — in response to the situation in Gaza.
Newly-elected U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also faced divisions in his left-of-center Labour Party, with members and local councillors quitting at his refusal to call for a cease-fire earlier this year. He demoted a number of front bench MPs for failing to toe the party line.
But while pro-Palestine protests have continued across the U.K, and at least five independents standing on the issue of Gaza defeated Labour candidates in the July 4 election, this was not enough to cause a serious dent in what was a landslide victory for Starmer.
For the SNP, the splits may run deeper.
Robertson’s meeting with Grudsky in Edinburgh came at the request of the Israeli government and was sanctioned by Scottish First Minister John Swinney. The Scottish government did not initially disclose that the meeting took place.
At the head of a devolved government within the structures of the U.K, the SNP has no direct control over Scotland’s foreign policy, which is reserved to the Westminster government led by Starmer. 
But in its mission to eventually become an independent country, the SNP — largely through Robertson as external affairs minister — does operate its own shadow foreign policy, running international offices and engaging with other countries in a way that is distinct from the U.K.’s official aims. 
Grudsky posted the photo of the pair four days after the meeting saying they had “discussed the unique commonalities between Israel and Scotland and also emphasized the urgent need to bring back our 115 hostages.”
The photo effectively revealed that the meeting had taken place — sparking a wave of criticism from some in the party.
Robertson was widely criticized by elected SNP members, some senior officials and lots within the SNP’s vocal base, and was accused of undermining the party’s pro-Gaza credentials. 
The row stung because under former First Minister Humza Yousaf — whose wife, SNP councillor Nadia El-Nakla, is half-Palestinian — and then Swinney, who took over in May, the party has consistently called for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict and has taken a vocal position in opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Since the war broke out last fall the SNP has contrasted its constant support for a cease-fire with Starmer’s slower call for a halt to fighting. 
Days of negative headlines — and some calls for his resignation — later, Robertson apologized for the fact that the meeting was not “strictly limited to the need for an immediate cease-fire”. 
“This was incredibly badly handled,” said one senior SNP politician, speaking anonymously to be frank about their colleagues.
“It’s illustrative of the way the party needs to sharpen up its act — there was sloppiness, there was laziness [in the way it was handled],” they added.
“It’s disappointing that what sounds like a perfectly straightforward exchange of views on the key international story of the moment has been allowed to be characterized as it was,” a former SNP MP agreed. 
The issue looks set to haunt the SNP’s annual conference at the weekend, already set to be a downbeat affair in the wake of damaging results for the nationalists at the July 4 election. One local SNP branch is plotting a “motion of censure” against Robertson according to the Herald newspaper, while other angry activists may try to make their voices heard. 
As well as apologizing for the way the meeting with Grudsky played out, Robertson added that it “would not be appropriate to accept any invitation for a further meeting” with the Israeli government — effectively promising no further engagement with Israel in an effort to cool the angry reaction from the large pro-Gaza element of the SNP’s vocal party grassroots. 
For those in the SNP who advocate that the party should act like a serious, independent nation with a role on the international stage, the episode is frustrating.
“If you want to be treated like a serious country that engages internationally, do you engage or are you a watcher?” the senior SNP politician quoted above said.
“This showed a lack of maturity around our debate and discussion on foreign policy — the reactions of some people have been pretty absurd. 
“Does it help one single Palestinian? I don’t think it does,” they added. 
The row also reflects a problem hitting other progressive parties of government: balancing public feeling about conflicts like the one in Gaza with the demands of diplomacy.
“The British public doesn’t get super engaged on lots of foreign policy, but when it does it holds very strong views held at the extremes. People then see foreign policy in very black and white terms, so they don’t necessarily see why it’s so important to engage,” said Evie Aspinall, who chairs the British Foreign Policy Group think tank.
“[Diplomacy] doesn’t mean that you have to agree with every nation, but it means that nations that you don’t agree with, you can’t ignore,” Aspinall added. 
Like the SNP, Starmer is likely to continue to facing pressure from pro-Palestinian activists over any engagement with Israel, even though he does now call for a cease-fire in Gaza. 
“This is an underlying problem for Labour,” Aspinall said. 
“People will start pushing them harder within the party, particularly on Israel and Palestine … it has so many in the party that ideally will just want to not engage at all,” she added.
Other nations led by governments of the center or center-left have taken a different tack from Starmer’s party when it comes to engagement with Israel.
The governments of Ireland, Spain and Norway recognized a Palestinian state in May — triggering fury from Israel, which withdrew its ambassadors from those countries in response.
Starmer has not yet opted to have the U.K. government he leads do the same, despite including a commitment to recognizing Palestine “as a contribution to a renewed peace process” in its manifesto.
Labour is likely to face pressure on that issue in the coming months — particularly at its own party conference in September, where fringe events on Palestine are already being organized by activists.