JOHN Mason has been expelled from the SNP following comments he made on Gaza, according to the MSP.
The Glasgow Shettleston MSP says he is "very disappointed" to be kicked out of the party.
On Twitter, Mason said: "Very disappointed to be expelled from @theSNP over my comments on Israel, Gaza, and whether or not there has been genocide.
"I continue to believe that we should be able to tolerate a variety of views within the Party as long as we are all committed to Scottish independence."
In August, Mason published a series of posts on Twitter/X which appeared to deny a genocide was taking place in Gaza.
He wrote: “If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed ten times as many.”
It was in response to former SNP MSP Sandra White, who said: “We know what Israelis hope to achieve they are already committing genocide in Gaza,” adding that “innocent children are being massacred”.
In a separate tweet, Mason said: “There is no genocide. If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed many many more.”
He had the whip withdrawn with “immediate effect,” pending internal parliamentary group "due process".
John Mason recently joined a protest against abortion clinic buffer zones outside the Scottish Parliament (Image: Andrew Milligan)
A meeting of the SNP member conduct committee was held on Saturday to discuss the matter, with Mason having been suspended for seven weeks.
Following the meeting, the SNP said the committee concluded that John Mason should be expelled from the party.
Mason will have the right to appeal the decision within the next 21 days.
An SNP spokepserson said: “As the disciplinary process includes the right to appeal, the issue remains live and we cannot comment prior to its conclusion.”
After the decision to remove the whip in August, a party spokesperson said: “To flippantly dismiss the death of more than 40,000 Palestinians is completely unacceptable. There can be no room in the SNP for this kind of intolerance."
Mason’s suspension came as both he and Culture Secretary Angus Robertson faced intense scrutiny after holding separate meetings with the deputy Israeli ambassador to the UK.
Mason, who has been an MSP since 2011, tweeted he had a “useful discussion” with Daniela Grudsky on what Israel hopes to achieve in Gaza”.
Former SNP MP Ian Blackford said of the post: “Forty thousand plus dead in Gaza and you tweet this. You are not fit for public office. You are an embarrassment and not fit to represent anyone.”
Alongside his comments on Gaza, Mason consistently sparked controversy with his anti-abortion comments throughout debates on Green MSP Gillian Mackay’s Safe Access Zones Bill.
The bill was passed overwhelmingly by MSPs, with anti-protest buffer zones now in place around abortion clinics in Scotland. Mason was the only politician at Holyrood to vote against the legislation.
Mason joined a protest against the new law outside the Scottish Parliament last month.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
