Scottish court charges anti-Israel activists with ‘racial’ harassment
A group of anti-Israel activists who disrupted a concert by the Jerusalem String Quartet in Scotland last August have been charged by a Scottish court with racially aggravated harassment.
At a the performance, in Edinburgh’s Queen Hall on August 29, four members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) - a radical offshoot of the London-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign fringe group - interrupted the concert by shouting abuse at the musicians and audience.
It was claimed that the activists caused distress to both the orchestra and members of the audience.
The protesters had originally been charged with disturbing the peace, but at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday those charges were dropped in favor of the more serious charge of “racially motivated conduct.”
Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News, Sofia Macleod, secretary of the SPSC and one of those charged, said: “We think it’s totally ridiculous. Our actions and campaigning are based on international human rights. We take the allegations seriously, but there is no question whatsoever that any of our actions are racist in any way.”
She added that the Palestine solidarity movement was “an anti-racist movement based on anti-racism,” a claim which was questioned by the Fair Play Campaign Group (FPCG), a community organization that coordinates activity against boycotts of Israel and other anti-Zionist campaigns.
“This is a common but obviously false argument - firstly the claim that the whole Palestine solidarity movement is ‘anti-racist.’ This is transparently not true; it has its share of outright racists and anti-Semites, a fact acknowledged even by many anti-Israel activists. Simply being a member of a pro-Palestinian group doesn’t automatically make someone an ‘anti-racist,’” an FPCG spokesman said.