ISRAEL came under fire at the General Assembly as impassioned pleas were made for justice in Palestine. With the proceedings observed by the Israeli Ambassador Dror Zeigerman, one minister donned a Palestinian shawl and said he hoped he was not being insulting.

The assembly urged the Government to work through the European Union and the United Nations to persuade Israel its security should not come at the expense of Palestinian rights.

Ms Alison Elliot, convener of the church and nation committee, said Israel's promised land had also been described as the ''over-promised land''.

She said: ''It is a land of road-blocks and security checks which seeks to keep apart the two peoples for whom it is home. It also keeps some people away from the particular place they regard as home.''

She added: ''The pain and despair and fear which characterise that precious land for so many is something we must not shut our eyes to, however intractable the way to a just peace may appear.''

The Rev Colin Morton, who lived in Israel for nine years, spoke warmly of the country, but added: ''Surely our overriding duty is to do what we can to preserve the culture and hopes of the Palestinians - Christian and Muslim - who have rights just as any other human beings have.''

The Rev John Harris, of Bearsden South, donned a Palestinian scarf and, bearing in mind the presence of the Israeli Ambassador, said: ''I hope it would not be offensive.''

He added: ''The cry of the Palestinians needs to be made known.''

The Rev John Spiers, of Giffnock, added a motion congratulating the State of Israel on its 50th anniversary and reiterating the church's opposition to anti-Semitism.

This was carried with a rider proposed by the Rev Margaret Forrester, of St Michael's, that the Israeli ambassador convey to his government the concern of the General Assembly for justice for all the peoples in the Middle East, particularly those who were ''refugees in their own land''.

The British Government was also urged by the assembly to develop its ''ethical'' foreign policy in the Middle East.

Delegates said more importance should be given to self-determination and human rights, and less to oil and the arms trade.

The Rev William Reid, of Paris, called on the Government to give an unequivocal commitment not to sell arms to countries practising human rights abuses.

He said the Indonesian government's repression had been made possible by British arms. ''If we were able to see through our television pictures closely enough, we would see that the vast majority of the weapons borne by these troops were made in Britain.''

He said he did not understand how the Government could talk of an ethical foreign policy while arms were sold to such regimes.

The Rev George Donaldson, of Golspie, said that ''in view of what has been revealed about various people in the Foreign Office'', the Kirk should make a stand for an ethical policy. He claimed 300,000 deaths in East Timor had been caused ''by British arms''.