Scottish Government must choose human rights over war profiteers
The SNP must urgently update parliament on what it is doing to end Scottish Government support for companies arming and supporting Israel, say the Scottish Greens.
Yesterday in Holyrood, Scottish Greens co-leader and Economy spokesperson Lorna Slater MSP forced a vote to ensure the Scottish Government takes urgent action on Scottish Enterprise’s failing human rights due diligence checks.
All other parties except the Scottish Greens refused to back Lorna’s call.
Since 2019, the Scottish Government has reportedly given at least £8 million of Scottish Enterprise grants to companies involved in arms dealing and manufacturing. This includes a number of businesses who have directly supplied weapons and military equipment to Israel during its assault on Gaza, including Leonardo and Raytheon.
Companies receiving funds through Scottish Enterprise are subject to a human rights due diligence check, but no company has ever failed these checks. Amnesty International has condemned the process as “inadequate”.
Following a debate forced by the Greens in February this year, the Scottish Government committed to a review of these human rights checks to ensure that Scotland is meeting its international obligations.
However, the Government has yet failed to update Parliament on the progress of the review.
Lorna Slater spoke in the Conservatives party debate ‘Recognising the Economic Contribution of Scotland’s Defence Sector’.
Speaking after the vote, Lorna said:
“Not a penny of public money should be going to arms companies that are profiting from war crimes and genocide in Gaza. But four months on from the Scottish Government’s promised review of Scottish Enterprise human rights checks, we’ve had no update and seen no changes. Ten-thousand more people have been killed in Gaza while this review has been going on.
“Yesterday, the Parliament could have forced the Government to report on this critical review and ensure they meet their own public commitments to upholding and promoting human rights internationally. But despite voting for the review in February, the SNP, Labour and the Lib Dems refused to back our call for an urgent update to Parliament.
“The ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza that is being live streamed on social media into our homes, is only possible because of the companies and governments arming the state of Israel to carry out the assaults."Just this week, 51 starving Palestinians were killed while desperately trying to access food through a so-called 'aid' distribution point coordinated by the US and Israel. This is only one of several attacks at these sites, where the death toll has now reached into the hundreds, with thousands more severely injured.
“We may not have the power to stop the UK’s active participation in Israel’s genocide, but we can control where our public money goes - and that should never be put into the pockets of companies who are profiting from some of the most horrific war crimes of our generation.”