Green MSP 'spoken to' over Hamas social media post

Green MSP Maggie Chapman shared a controversial post following the Hamas attack on Israel

Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater says she has spoken to an MSP about a social media post about the Hamas attack on Israel.

Maggie Chapman shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, that described the attack as "decolonisation", not "terrorism". She later condemned Hamas for killing civilians.

Ms Slater said she did not support the initial statement.

She refused to say if her colleague should be sanctioned by the party.

• Yousaf's wife fears for 'terrified' family in Gaza

• Tribute to Scottish victim of attack on Israel

At least 1,200 people in Israel were killed during the weekend attacks by Hamas targeting soldiers and civilians, while more than 1,200 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched air strikes.

Ms Slater, minister for green skills, circular economy and biodiversity, said she did not support her colleague's post.

"The attacks on the weekend were absolutely acts of terrorism," she told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland.

"To attack unarmed civilians, to take hostages of civilians, these are clearly acts of terrorism and I and my party absolutely condemn those."

Green minister Lorna Slater refused to be drawn on whether she thought her colleague should be sanctioned by the party

The Green co-leader said Ms Chapman was "responsible" for her social media feed.

"I have spoken to Maggie Chapman about her tweet," she said. "What we really need to do is move the conversation on to how we deal with the humanitarian interest."

The minister said she did not want social media discussions to distract from efforts to establish an immediate ceasefire and for humanitarian corridors to be set up to allow civilians to flee conflict zones.

In her initial post, Ms Chapman said the attacks on Israel were "a consequence of apartheid, of illegal occupation and of imperial aggression by the Israel state".

On Wednesday, she said the other post she had shared attempted to "put this complex situation into some context".

She added: "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."

First Minister Humza Yousaf, whose family members have been trapped in Gaza since the Hamas attack, accused the Scottish Conservatives of a "crass" attempt to undermine his government's power-sharing agreement with the Greens following Ms Chapman's post.

In a letter to Mr Yousaf on Monday, Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw - whose Eastwood constituency has the biggest Jewish community in Scotland - asked that the Bute House agreement be scrapped if he agreed with comments from the Green MSP.

'Terribly crass'

Mr Yousaf responded: "To somehow equate what is happening in the geo-political situation between Israel and Palestine, to reduce it to an issue about whether the Bute House Agreement can go on or shouldn't go on, I think is terribly crass."

He went on to describe the attacks as "unjustifiable", expressing his government's support for a two-state solution.

"Innocent civilians being killed will not help us towards peace and an innocent Israeli life is worth, of course, the same as an innocent Palestinian life," the first minister said.

"An innocent child getting killed, it doesn't matter whether they're Palestinian or Israeli."