SNP members have called for a Scottish Government review into “commercial arrangements” with businesses complicit in Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank.
An emergency conference resolution on Gaza, proposed by Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee and the Scots Asians for Independence, was passed unanimously on Friday.
The motion reiterated the SNP’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and calls for a ban on arms sales to Israel.
But it also expressed concern at the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem, and called for a review of “commercial arrangements” involving firms profiting from or complicit in Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank.
“Conference notes with extreme concern the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem and requests the Scottish Government undertakes a formal review of commercial arrangements involving Israel to ensure that goods and services should not be procured from illegally occupied territories,” the motion read.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights previously published a list of companies that it identified as being linked to Israeli building programmes in the West Bank.
In 2021, the Scottish Government acknowledged that multiple companies on the list were in receipt of public funds and contracts.
McKee, then the minister for trade, committed to an investigation and to write to all companies named by the UN to express the Government’s concerns and asked Scottish public bodies to report any existing relationships with the identified companies.
In November last year, Humza Yousaf agreed and stated that those profiting from illegal occupations should not be able to profit in Scotland.
But the Scottish Greens have noted that the government has since “failed to take action”.
