SCOTTISH Tory MP Andrew Bowie has defended Israel’s “right” to block two Labour MPs from entering the West Bank.
It emerged on Sunday that Westminster politicians Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed were detained and deported from Israel.
Israeli authorities said in a statement that they were denied entry because they were suspected of wanting to “to document Israeli security forces and spread hateful rhetoric against Israel”.
However, the MPs said they made the trip with charity partners as part of an delegation “to visit humanitarian aid projects and communities in the West Bank”.
The incident has sparked political outrage in the UK, with Foreign Secretary David Lammy stating that he had “made clear” to his counterparts in the Israeli government that it is “no way to treat British parliamentarians”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch sparked outrage on Sunday after she said she was “not surprised” the MPs were detained.
Badenoch said that “every country should be able to control its borders, and that’s what Israel is doing, as far as I understand”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Politics Live programme Bowie, MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, said he agreed with Badenoch’s comments.
He said: “I agree that Israel has a right to determine who enters its country in the same way that, of course, the UK Government has a right to determine who enters the United Kingdom.
“We have to take the reasons that the Israeli government gave at face value their country at war, and if they believed that these MPs were going over there to, you know, incite disquiet..”
Labour MP Chris Curtis interjected to ask if Bowie if he thought the MPs were doing so, to which the Tory MP said that’s the reason Israel gave.
“That’s their reasons, I’m not a spokesperson for the Israeli Government,” Bowie replied.
“You just said they were right to do it, so you must agree with their arguments,” Curtis added.
“I didn't actually, Chris, you heard what I said, I said every government has a right to determine who enters their borders,” Bowie said.
“We've got to take what the Israeli government said at face value, and that's the reasons they gave.
“We'll be hearing more about this this afternoon in the House of Commons, and then we Commons, and then we can ask questions of the Foreign Secretary.”
Presenter Jo Coburn then pressed Bowie on if he believed Yang and Mohamed were on a mission to “spread hate speech” in Israel.
“I don't know this particular situation of these two individual MPs, or indeed, their own particular views. I’ve not heard them express any views on Israel in the last few months.
“But we have heard some extreme comments made in the House of Commons from various MPs, not specifically on the Labour Party benches, and so I can understand why a country at war like Israel is far more reluctant to allow people into that country given the situation they find themselves in right now.”
We previously told how former first minister Humza Yousaf said that Israel blocking the MPs from entering the country showed they were looking to “avoid international scrutiny”.
Yousaf said it was “utterly unacceptable” that Yang and Mohamed were detained.
