HUMZA Yousaf has accused Michael Gove of an “utter lack of humanity” for suggesting the Israeli Defence Forces should receive a Nobel Peace Prize.
The former first minister was part of an event with the ex-Tory minister at the University of Glasgow's John Smith Centre and confronted him about an article he had written for the Jewish Chronicle earlier this month.
Gove said in the piece on January 8 “maybe it’s time” for then US president Joe Biden and his secretary of state Antony Blinken to “make amends” with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu before they leave office.
He added: “Words are all very well, but what about something more tangible? Why not nominate the men and women of the IDF for the Nobel Peace Prize?”
He then suggested that Israel – who killed more than 47,000 Palestinians during its brutal war on Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry – had “demonstrated the sort of strength that is the only path to enduring peace”.
While a major pro-Palestine protest took place outside the building, Gove was initially asked to expand on what he said in the article.
He said: “I am a very strong supporter of the state of Israel.
“No state is perfect. No armed forces will ever operate without making mistakes, but Israel is defending itself.”
He went on: “The IDF has an almost impossible job to do operating in urban warfare against a terrorist organisation that will often deliberately hide its operations in hospitals and in schools.
“It has been shown over time that the IDF is more capable of reducing civilian casualties than almost any armed force on the map.
“It is the responsibility of those who are not Jewish to ensure the Jewish state and the Jewish people survive after the horrors of October 7 .”
Yousaf then called out what Gove had written in the piece, as well as some of the comments he had just made in defence of it.
“You started by saying you are strong supporter of Israel and I think this is where we begin to get into problems, when you or anyone describes themselves as pro-one state and so therefore can justify the horrors of that one state,” Yousaf said.
“I don’t describe myself as pro-Palestinian, pro-Muslim, pro-Arab [..] I describe myself as pro-humanity and what seemed to be missing [from your piece] was an utter lack of humanity.
“If it is genuinely what you believe then I hope at some point in your life you recapture some of the humanity that was lost by making such a statement.
“Michael kept using the phrase that every army in the world makes a mistake. 47,000 Gazans killed, that’s not a mistake. Killing 10s of thousands of children is not a mistake.”
Yousaf then made a moving speech asking the audience to picture themselves being in the situation where they child or grandchild had been shot, just as two-year-old Laila Al-Khatib was by the IDF earlier this week.
“I don’t care what side of the debates or geopolitical debates you’re on, but I want you to just humanise it for a minute,” Yousaf added.
“I want you to picture your child, your son, your daughter, your grandchild, your niece, your nephew. I want you to picture them as they were when they were two years old.
“I want you to picture the family dinner you are having, and I just want you to imagine what it must have felt like for the grandparents of Laila Al-Khatib when a bullet burst through the window and smashed into her skull and she lay there bleeding to death.
“Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Nothing, including the October 7 attacks, justifies such devastation, such death, and the mass killing of innocent civilians.”
“The IDF, the political leaders of Israel, they do not deserve a Nobel Peace Prize, they deserve to be tried in The Hague and I hope to god I see the day they are held to account for the war crimes they have committed.”
Outside the event at the Charles Wilson Building, dozens of students turned up to a protest with Palestinian flags to express their feelings about Gove.
Chants of “Glasgow uni, shame shame” and “Free Palestine” could be heard, including while the event was taking place.
