Ambassador: Scotland is a hotbed for Israeli-haters

Published on Thursday 3 December 2009 21:30

SCOTLAND has become a centre for anti-Israeli sentiment in the UK, the Israeli ambassador to Britain said last night.

Speaking after visiting Glasgow to watch Hapoel Tel-Aviv play Celtic in the Europa League, Ron Prosor questioned the values of Scots campaigning against his country's treatment of the Palestinians.

He dismissed an attempt by campaigners to hijack the match at Parkhead on Wednesday after the Scottish Trade Union Congress tried to persuade fans to wave Palestinian flags as a protest.

Activists gave out paper flags, but most were thrown on the ground. Many Celtic fans were angered by the attempt to politicise the match. Only a handful of flags were waved during the game.

"I had to use my binoculars and a microscope to see them," Mr Prosor joked. "It was strange they should target Hapoel, which until recently was owned and run by the unions. It was the workers' team."

But he claimed that the UK had become a centre for anti-Israeli feeling and told The Scotsman this was "more concentrated in Scotland".

He said organisations like the STUC, many Scottish politicians and SNP ministers, who wrote in protest over Israel's actions in Gaza in January, did not understand the situation properly.

"They might think differently if Scotland was surrounded by enemies who want its complete destruction," he said.

He acknowledged that mistakes had been made, particularly with shelling of a UN school in Gaza in January. "But you have to remember that Hamas used their own population as a human shield," he said. Mr Prosor also took on "misconceptions" about the way Israel dealt with the Palestinians, such as the separation barrier around the Gaza Strip.

"This famous wall is ten kilometres long in a line of 300km of fence," he said. "Imagine if you are going to a restaurant and you always have to look at the door not because you are interested in the doorman but because a suicide bomber may walk through the door any moment.

"When we put up fences, surprise, the suicide bombs stop. But one-third of the Palestinian territory has a border with Egypt. Why doesn't anybody put pressure on Egypt to let supplies through?"

He also warned that Scots and other British critics were losing sight of values over what was happening in the Middle East.

"The story that is never told is what happens in Gaza. The law there and in Arab countries is Islamic law – women and gays are persecuted, shoplifters have their hands removed.

"It mystifies me why supporters of liberal democracy are so enthusiastic about making common cause with groups like that."

He suggested that it was Israel's democratic approach which lay behind its "bad press".

"The Arab world has one view because it is not democratic. We are a democracy so there are diverse views coming out and that is perversely used against us."

Dave Moxham, the deputy general secretary of the STUC said: "There was a level of protest within the ground, but it was minimised by the opposition of Celtic Football Club and its stewards.

"That contrasts enormously with the general level of support for the Palestinian cause that we tried to raise.

"We will reflect upon the fact that we had many more supporters around the ground than people who were prepared to show flags, but we don't think the support of the Palestinian people among Celtic fans, or the Scottish people generally, is in any way diminished."