Greens share anger at disappointing Dunfermline MP Israel trip
The Fife branch of the Scottish Greens have today expressed their anger and disappointment over reports in The National newspaper that Dunfermline and Dollar’s newly elected Labour MP Graeme Downie accepted an all-expenses paid trip to Israel and the illegally occupied West Bank.
In his parliament declared register of interests, Downie included the £2200 trip, funded entirely by the “Labour Friends of Israel.”, Downie’s trip included meetings with Israeli Government Officials as well as activists and academics. These meetings took place only weeks before Israel’s latest campaign of attacks on Gaza which began last October.
Ryan Blackadder who stood for the Scottish Greens in July’s general election said of the trip: “To learn Mr Downie accepted such a trip whilst serving as a Labour councillor in Fife, flies in the face of Labour statements on the ongoing genocide of innocent Palestinians.
“At no point in the General Election campaign did Mr Downie publicly speak of the atrocities being inflicted on the people of Gaza and a search of his social media shows no mention of Israel, Palestine, or Gaza.
“How can the people of Dunfermline and West Fife be expected to trust an MP who would take secret trips to an abusive apartheid state like Israel while making no mention of it? If we can’t expect fairness or impartiality from our new MP when it comes to international affairs, what other topics should we be concerned about?
Blackadder added: “Dunfermline’s new neighbouring MP in Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy is Labour’s Melanie Ward, who resigned her position as the CEO of Medical Aid for Palestine when elected. How comfortable can she be working so closely with someone who was so recently flown in as an honoured guest to the occupied region she was working so hard to support?
“Mr Downie continuously champions Ukraine and the importance of the UK’s continued support and intervention in their war, when will he stand up and do the same for those suffering from the killing in Palestine?”