SNP must give up pretence weapons firms aren't arming Israel

The National

5 hours ago

We see the devastation every day on social media – the flattened homes, the murdered children, the hospitals turned to rubble.
While Scotland is thousands of miles away from this daily death and destruction, we have important questions to ask our own Governments about their complicity in this escalating conflict.
Labour's UK Government has armed Israel. It has even trained its military forces. It has refused to challenge Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
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Its response has done nothing but encourage the escalation of violence in the Middle East, from its ongoing material support for Israel's daily atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank, to the political cover it is now providing Israel and the US as they intensify the conflict in Iran.
The SNP have been right to call out Westminster's disgraceful complicity in Israel's war crimes. But, despite this, the Scottish Government has continued to give public money to companies which are arming Israel.
This paper exposed that since 2019, Scottish Enterprise has awarded at least £8 million in public grants to arms manufacturers.
And more recent research from Amnesty International found that between January 2022 and April 2025, Scottish Enterprise gave almost £2.75m to firms which have been arming Israel.
That includes Leonardo, which produces the laser targeting systems for Israeli fighter jets, and Raytheon, whose smart bombs have helped level whole city blocks in Gaza.
Entire cities in Gaza have been levelled by Israeli bombsThese aren't just abstract names on an export list, they are companies producing tools of death, and our money is helping them do it.
The companies profiting from this assault on Gaza – one which leading human rights experts, including Amnesty International, have described as a genocide – are embedded in our economy.
This should not be happening.
In 2019, the Scottish Government – after pressure from the Scottish Greens – committed that all Scottish public bodies would conduct human rights checks on companies, including arms manufacturers, prior to funding them.
These due diligence checks look at a number of things – including whether a company has been associated with human rights abuses anywhere in the world.
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But no company has ever failed the checks undertaken by Scottish Enterprise, despite clear evidence that companies like Raytheon and Leonardo are arming Israel's war.
These human rights checks are clearly not fit for purposes.
In February, we forced the Government to review these human rights checks. For months, we pushed for a progress update.
We demanded answers before the summer.
Earlier this week, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes finally updated Parliament on the review. She claimed that Scottish Enterprise's internal assessment of past practice found no evidence that grant money has gone towards the manufacturing of munitions.
The SNP are right not to use public money to pay for the production of munitions in Scotland.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes (Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire) But exactly how many degrees of separation does the Scottish Government want before it finally acknowledges complicity?
If you contribute towards building a bigger bomb factory, you don't get to say that you haven't funded the production of the bombs.
The truth is that Scottish Government funds are still going to the manufacturers of weapons and military technology used by Israel to inflict unimaginable harms on Palestinians.
The Scottish Greens have always been clear.
Companies that are arming Israel's assault on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank should never receive public funding.
Our money should never be used to boost the profits and profiles of arms companies that are happy to fuel genocide and war crimes.
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Let's stop pretending we don't know where our money ends up and who's enjoying the spoils. The evidence is there.
We may not have the power to halt the UK's arms sales or change its foreign policy.
But we do have the power to decide where our own public funds go. And we must use that power responsibly.
The Scottish Government can't have it both ways. Ministers can't call on the UK Government to halt arms exports to Israel while simultaneously handing money to the very firms that make those weapons. The people of Scotland deserve better.
The Scottish public has a proud tradition of opposing war, standing for peace, and defending human rights. Let's not tarnish that legacy by turning a blind eye when it matters most.