Scottish lawmaker faces calls to resign over antisemitic social media post

A member of the Scottish Parliament is in hot water after liking an image merging Israeli and Nazi flags.

By World Israel News Staff

A Scottish Green Party lawmaker is facing calls to resign after her social media account endorsed an image depicting the Israeli flag with a blood-covered swastika, prompting condemnation from Jewish leaders and opposition politicians.

Ariane Burgess, a member of the Scottish Parliament representing the Highlands and Islands, came under fire after her account was found to have liked the image, which was published on Instagram and Facebook by former Scottish parliamentarian John Finnie.

Finnie, who previously represented both the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Greens, has also published posts describing Israeli soldiers as “Nazis in action” and referring to “blood-thirsty Zionists.” Another image he shared depicted an Israeli soldier wearing a Nazi uniform.

The Jewish Council of Scotland condemned the material as “grotesque and antisemitic,” accusing those responsible of exploiting the Holocaust to demonize Israel.

The organization said the comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany was particularly offensive because it invoked the murder of six million Jews to attack the Jewish state.

Its representatives demanded that Burgess provide an explanation and apologize to Scotland’s Jewish community, arguing that politicians must distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies and rhetoric that trivializes the Holocaust.

The council also called on the Scottish Greens’ leadership to publicly condemn the imagery, investigate Burgess’s interaction with the post and clarify whether disciplinary measures would follow.

Scottish Conservative MSP Rachael Hamilton joined the criticism, demanding that party co-leaders Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay suspend Burgess.

Hamilton accused the Green leadership of failing to confront antisemitism within its ranks and demanded immediate disciplinary action.

Burgess, however, denied intentionally endorsing the offensive material, saying the interaction had been accidental.

“It has only come to my attention today,” she said, explaining that her account appeared to have liked the post by mistake.

She acknowledged that the content was inappropriate and offensive, adding that she had never intended to upset members of the Jewish community or anyone else.

The controversy comes amid growing criticism of the Green movement in Britain following a decision by the Green Party of England and Wales to formally adopt a policy defining Zionism as a form of racism.

The motion, approved at the party’s annual conference in Brighton on October 4 by 1,022 votes to 813, also called for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state.

The decision drew condemnation from Jewish organizations, which argued that it denied Jewish national self-determination and risked discriminating against Jews who identify as Zionists.

The Scottish Greens are organizationally separate from their counterparts in England and Wales, but senior Scottish party figures have publicly defended the controversial position.

On October 7, the third anniversary of the Hamas massacre in southern Israel, Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman endorsed the anti-Zionist policy, describing Zionism as “fundamentally incompatible with racial equality.”

The Jewish Council of Scotland condemned her remarks and accused the Greens of adopting a position hostile to Jewish identity and self-determination.

Meanwhile, the controversy has generated divisions within the Green Party of England and Wales itself, with several prominent figures criticizing the policy and questioning the leadership of Zack Polanski, who was absent during the conference vote.

Four of the party’s five members of Parliament opposed the motion, while Jewish Greens chairwoman Vivien Lichtenstein subsequently called for Polanski to resign.