AN MSP has issued a clarification after her tweets commenting on the Israel-Hamas conflict led the Scottish Conservatives to call for her resignation.
In the wake of attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians on Saturday, Chapman said that the occupation of Palestine had to be factored in as a cause of the violence.
She said: “What’s happening in #Palestine is a consequence of #apartheid, of illegal occupation [and] of imperial aggression by the Israel state.
“Palestinian civilians have seen their homes destroyed, their water stolen [and] their land appropriated illegally.”
Despite her views being echoed in the respected Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Jackson Carlaw MSP wrote to the First Minister calling on him to scrap the Bute House Agreement with the Greens.
Speaking to the press, he said: "Maggie Chapman’s comments are so unacceptable that Humza Yousaf must end the toxic Bute House Agreement and kick the Greens out of his government."
Humza Yousaf later said the use of the violence in Israel as a means of criticising the power-sharing deal between the SNP and the Scottish Greens was "crass".
Now, Chapman has issued a statement further explaining her original tweet.
She said: "The killing of innocent civilians by Hamas & Israel is reprehensible.
"I condemn them wholeheartedly & anyone who knows me will know this is my view.
"This crisis goes back decades. Earlier this week I shared a Tweet trying to put this complex situation into some context.
"As a campaigner I have always spoken out against Israel’s targeting of Palestinians, in the same way I have no hesitation in condemning Hamas for killing civilians.
"My thoughts are with all affected by events of this crisis, regardless of where they come from.
"I fear worse is to come. I support calls for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians and get aid to those most in need, and urgent international action to end this situation."
The parents of Humza Yousaf's wife, Nadia El-Nakla, remain trapped in Gaza after travelling there to visit the 92-year-old mother of Yousaf's father-in-law. It comes as a Scottish Parliament authority announced that it would not fly the Israeli flag outside Holyrood despite a request from the Tories to do so.
