SNP minister condemns ‘antisemitic’ Facebook post by his own dad

THE father of a Nats minister has resigned from the SNP amid fury over an allegation of an antisemitic social media post.

Police Scotland chiefs also faced questions as they were confronted with claims they failed to properly investigate the incident.

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The post shared on Facebook by Tom Arthur Snr.
SNP minister Tom Arthur  (left), and father, Tom Arthur Snr (right) at Holyrood.

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SNP minister Tom Arthur (left), and father, Tom Arthur Snr (right) at Holyrood.

The graphic showing a Nazi swastika within a Star of David – a symbol of Judaism used on the Israeli flag – is said to have been posted on the Facebook page of Tom Arthur Snr last week.

Mr Arthur is the father of Renfrewshire South MSP Tom Arthur, Holyrood’s Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance.

And Mr Arthur Snr resigned his membership from the SNP on Monday following the row.

But the ex cop who made the report said she was quizzed on whether she was Jewish by an officer, before her complaint was dropped altogether.

The complaint was one of a flood of reports made to Police Scotland after new hate crime laws kicked in on April 1, including a widened offence of “stirring up hatred”.

The post on Mr Arthur Snr’s Facebook page was alleged to have been made the same day.

It shows a blue Star of David with a black swastika incorporated into the design, and two blue bars above and below, making the graphic resemble an Israeli flag. At the top, it says “Nazism = Zionism”.

Zionism is the movement to create a Jewish state in the Middle East, but it’s often argued that anti-Zionism is used as a form of antisemitism – hostility and prejudice against Jews.

Most read in The Scottish Sun

Former NHS estates officer Mr Arthur Snr’s Facebook account appeared to have been deleted today amid a storm over the post.

But the woman – a former police officer – told the Daily Mail that police officers had complained of being “snowed under with all these complaints”.

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She claimed she was later asked whether she was Jewish by the officer, to which she said no, leading to the officer to said: “Well, that falls outwith the parameters. It won’t be moving forward as a crime. It will be logged as an incident, but it will not be going further criminally.”

The woman added: “I’m not a political activist, but I do hate anti- Semitism.

“This mentality existed before, but it has been enabled and allowed to fester in the last six months.

“We need to nip this behaviour in the bud. It’s like going back almost 100 years to central Europe. It’s being allowed and nobody’s standing up. I am offended, and I’m not Jewish.”

And the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said the police’s apparent failure to investigate the post was “inexplicable” and raised questions for cops and the government.

They said the International Definition of Antisemitism says comparing the policies of modern-day Israel to the Nazis is an example of anti-Jewish hatred.

A spokesperson said: “Police Scotland’s thinking here is inexplicable. What has the ethnic or religious identity of a complainant to do with the content and potential impact of a racist social media post under Scottish criminal law?

“The police are right that this post relates to Jewish people, as the overwhelming majority of British Jews identify as Zionists, according to our polling.

“But the police are plainly wrong to imagine that the identity of the person who reported the post should be relevant.

“The complainant – a former police officer who clearly retains her strong sense of right and wrong – did the right thing by reporting this antisemitic and potentially criminal post.

“The police, and potentially the SNP, have questions to answer.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson confirmed this afternoon: “We received a complaint which is being investigated as a communications offence.”

They added: ‘We received a report of offensive content online, which is being investigated.”

But there were claims Police Scotland is not following its own policy – which states that anyone is able to report a hate incident – and is picking and choosing which cases to log and probe.

Its Hate Crime National Guidance says a “hate Incident” is “Any incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated (wholly or partly) by malice and ill-will towards a social group but which does not constitute a criminal offence (non-crime incident)”.

And a “Hate Crime” is defined as “any crime which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated (wholly or partly) by malice and ill-will towards a social group”.

Jewish people are a protected group under the new Hate Crime Act which came into force last week.

The law extends a previous “stirring up hatred” offence which only applied to race to other “protected characteristics” of age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and “variations in sex characteristics”.

The law states an offence has been committed on the grounds of race, nationality, or ethnic origins if someone behaves or communicates in a way a “reasonable person” would see as threatening, abusive or insulting.

And the new law also says behaving or communicating in a way that a reasonable person would consider to be “threatening or abusive” also applies to somebody’s religion.

In the case of race-based hate, the police must believe the person “intends to stir up hatred” or would be “likely to result in hatred being stirred up”, while for religion-based hate, the person must intend to stir up hate.

An SNP spokesperson said: “The SNP stands firmly against anti-semitism.

“The social media post is unacceptable and would have been subject to disciplinary investigation had the individual concerned not resigned their party membership with immediate effect.”
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Read more on the Scottish Sun

Nats minister Tom Arthur said: “As an SNP MSP, I stand against discrimination of any kind. The online post shared by a family member falls far short of that position and I condemn the views expressed.

“Six months on from Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack which claimed the lives of more than 1000 innocent civilians, I will continue to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and for a permanent two state solution to pave the way towards peace in the region.”

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