AN independent Scotland could play a key role in brokering peace in Gaza – just as Norway did with the Oslo Accords, Humza Yousaf has said as he spoke about the “horrendous” ordeals his family in Palestine are going through.
Speaking exclusively to The National, the First Minister said the UK Government’s continued arms exports to Israel were “beyond comprehension” given the killing of three British citizens by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).
He spoke of the plight of his family in Gaza in a wide-ranging interview conducted as our reporter Steph Brawn shadows the First Minister on the campaign trail in the Highlands and islands.
Yousaf said his wife Nadia El-Nakla had relatives both in northern Gaza – “where the communication is very, very difficult” – and in the centre and south of the war-torn region.
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“It is an utterly horrific situation, beyond anybody's worst nightmare. For all of the difficult scenes that we've witnessed on the news, the situation is far worse for people given it's their everyday reality,” he said.
“It's really indescribable the inhumanity of it. They are desperate for clean water, desperate for food.
“I know, for example, that one of our family members is pretty ill with a stomach issue that's been long standing. They can't get the medicine anymore, that is gone, so she's in chronic pain as well as facing food and water shortages.
“Where they live in north Gaza has been completely decimated so a number of the family have actually moved into refugee camps because their houses don't exist anymore. It is just a horrendous situation.”
Yousaf (above) said that watching the plight of not just his family but the 2.2 million other people in Gaza was made “even more difficult” by the fact that the UK and the wider international community are “unwilling to stop it”.
“There's not enough pressure being exerted on Israel to immediately stop,” the First Minister said.
“Of course, there has to be more pressure for an immediate ceasefire. We are talking days after three British citizens have been killed – not died, not passed away – killed by the IDF.
“And yet the UK Government is still selling Israel arms and still not calling for an immediate ceasefire. It is beyond comprehension.”
READ MORE: 'We don’t have a boycott': Labour back selling arms to Israel
Israel has said it killed seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity, including three Brits, by accident. However, independent analysis has shown that all three vehicles were targeted separately and deliberately.
The First Minister said he would like to see whoever is in power at Westminster, be it Labour or the Conservatives, adopt a “foreign policy that absolutely has justice, compassion and humanity at its very core”.
He suggested this would be the position of an independent Scottish Government, going on: “Look, for me, of course, I want Scotland to be an independent country. I want Scotland to have its own foreign policy.
“I would like us, as a small country, to play a leadership role in peace in the way that other countries like Norway have, for example, with the Oslo accords.
“That’s just one example of, you know, a small country in Europe that plays an important role when it comes to peace.”
The Oslo Accords, signed in 1993 and 1995, saw the start of a peace process after secret negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Norwegian capital.
Both Hamas and right-wing Israeli extremists opposed the peace process.
READ MORE: Owen Jones: Starvation may prove to be Israel’s deadliest crime in Gaza
Yousaf’s comments come as the UK Government is facing extreme pressure to cease sending arms to Israel.
On Wednesday, more than 600 legal experts, including former Supreme Court president Brenda Hale, said the worsening situation in Gaza and the International Court of Justice’s conclusion that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” obliges the UK to suspend arms sales to the country.
That same day, in a letter reported publicly on Thursday, UK civil servants in Tory minister Kemi Badenoch's Department for Business and Trade (DBT) asked to stop work on arms exports to Israel immediately amid fears they will be complicit in war crimes.
President Joe Biden has told Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that future US support for the war in Gaza will depend on new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.
The International Court of Justice ruled in January that there was a “plausible” risk of genocide in Gaza and ordered Israel to take steps to prevent it.
A full report from Steph Brawn on her time shadowing the First Minister will appear in The National on Saturday.
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