Woman urges Swinney to boycott Israel as interview interrupted

An interview with John Swinney was interrupted by a woman urging the First Minister to boycott Israel.

The First Minister was speaking to the Press Association during an election campaign stop in the Western Isles on Wednesday when Liz Brown, who was visiting from Oban, Argyll and Bute, interrupted.

Mr Swinney has described the Israeli action in Gaza in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas as a “genocide” and announced last year that the Scottish Government would stop funding firms dealing with countries who have been accused of genocidal actions.

In a relatively calm exchange, Ms Brown accused the First Minister of being “on your knees” and – wrongly – described Scotland as an “independent country”.

Urged to boycott Israel, the First Minister said: “We’ve taken all the steps we can take within the powers we’ve got to do exactly that, and that’s what I agreed to in Parliament in September.”

Ms Brown responded: “I think the UN have been quite toothless about it, so people need to do something about it, quite urgently.

“We’re looking at a world about to get blown up by a stupid, stupid, stupid person – I’m reluctant to say a human being, there’s no humanity.

“So we need people to stand up, you need to get off your knees, and the same with Westminster.

“We need to stop begging and begging for independence, we are an independent country.”

Ms Brown went on to urge the First Minister to block US planes from Scottish airports.

She praised the approach to the Israeli offensive in Gaza taken by Ireland and Spain, to which the First Minister said he was on a “similar wavelength”.

Ms Brown went on to criticise the First Minister for the SNP not aligning itself with other independence supporting parties.

“Forgive me for being leader of the SNP, but that’s the party I want people to vote for,” he told her.