A group of Scots MSPs, headed by the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Jackson Carlaw have taken representations from a key Israeli government official in the UK supporting the targeting of hospitals and ambulances in Gaza, the Herald on Sunday can reveal.

The lobbying was made to MSPs on a Building Bridges with Israel cross-party parliamentary group by Oren Marmorstein, Deputy Ambassador of Israel to the UK.

The acceptance by the group of the representation has been described as "disgusting" and a "stain on Scottish politics and the Scottish Parliament" by pro-Palestinian activists in Scotland.

The group was originally established in 2017 with its stated purpose to "engage with Israel and build links based on business, culture and academia as well as exploring and countering issues of anti-Semitism at home and abroad".

But it has emerged that Mr Marmorstein, who was an invited guest to the meeting which took place five-and-a-half weeks after Hamas attacks told MSPs there should not be a ceasefire and even questioned whether the west should seek to dissuade Israel from shooting at hospitals and ambulances.

The Herald:

Human Rights Watch, the international non-governmental organisation headquartered in New York says the Israeli military’s repeated attacks on medical facilities should be investigated as war crimes saying they are unlawful.

It comes after one of Rafah's last remaining operational hospital said it was forced to shut down after heavy Israeli bombardment of the city and the death of two staff members in overnight strikes.

At least two people were reported to have been killed and five injured in an Israeli attack on the complex, according to hospital director Dr Suhaib Al Hams.

A video shared by the Palestinian Awdeh TV channel showed the bodies of two men lying near the hospital after the strike. Their clothes were covered in blood and one of them was missing an arm. Footage showed the bodies being taken to the hospital on orange stretchers as men shouted “may God have mercy on your soul”.

It came amidst renewed Israeli shelling and strikes killed at least 37 people, most of them sheltering in tents, outside the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The strikes that went into Tuesday pummelled the same area where strikes had triggered a deadly fire that swept through a camp for displaced Palestinians.

The tent camp inferno has drawn widespread international outrage, including from some of Israel’s closest allies, over the military’s expanding offensive into Rafah.

In a sign of Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage, Spain, Norway and Ireland formally recognised a Palestinian state on Tuesday, while the First Minister John Swinney has called for the UK government to do the same.

It has emerged that former Scottish Tory party leader Jackson Carlaw, who is the MSP for Eastwood chaired a meeting of the Building Bridges with Israel from the Israeli Embassy in London on a Zoom call where he introduced Mr Marmorstein who is billed as an invited guest.

An official account of the meeting, seen by The Herald, states that it was Mr Carlaw's first visit to the Israeli Embassy and was "specifically as a statement of support for Israel".

The November 15 meeting came 39 days after gunmen from the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on Israel from Gaza - said to be the deadliest in Israel's history - said to have killed about 1,200 people.

An Israeli military campaign has followed, which has killed thousands in the Palestinian territory.

The Herald: The scene earlier this week outside the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah, forced to shut down after reports that an Israeli attack killed two medical staff 

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has been an ongoing military and political battle over land and self-determination which has its roots in the late 19th and 20th centuries within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine - a geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the region under the terms of the League of Nations, the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.

The 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine triggered a war which saw the establishment of Israel on most of Mandatory Palestine territory, and the control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by Egypt and Jordan, respectively.

Amidst the propaganda war, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states that the number of reviewed and verified Palestinians and Israelis who were killed or injured since 2008 in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and Israel in the context of the occupation and conflict numbered 7,253. Some 6,926 were Palestinian, with just 327 Israeli.

Casualties in the context of the ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel following the October 7 attack are only added when independently verified.

Unverified accounts quoted by the OCHA say that over 36,050 Palestinians have been killed since the October 7 attack against over 1,200 Israelis.

The Building Bridges with Israel group was originally founded by Mr Carlaw and followed a controversial Scottish Conservative trip to Israel and the Occupied Territories, funded by Conservative Friends of Israel.

The account of the controversial November 15 meeting states that Mr Marmorstein, who previously served as the policy advisor to the director general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said it was "clear" that Hamas [was] "using hospitals and ambulances for terrorist purposes" and that it was "immoral".

The account of his address states: "The question is whether the west are to make this ploy effective by stating that Israel cannot shoot at these facilities and it must not be tolerated; thus rendering immunity to Hamas. It shows that Hamas can hide behind civilians.

"The reason they are throwing civilians in front of them is because they want as many casualties as possible, as they are then sure that the west will stop Israel. However, Israel cannot stop as, if Israel stops, then the attacks of October 7 will be repeated."

The account said that Oren stated that the world "did not call for a ceasefire after 9/11 or Pearl Harbour for the US, and the UK Government would equally retaliate were such an attack to occur against the UK; this is rightly so because it is the duty of every government to provide security for its citizens."

It said: "Ceasefire calls would give Hamas a gift as [it] would provide an opportunity to rearm and regroup to carry out further attacks."

The account said that Mr Marmorstein, who also once worked at the MFA's strategic affairs division covering counter terrorism and regional security issues and received the MFA's outstanding employee award for 2017 said that "this is truly a fight against evil".

It said: "Israel has one request – give us time - time to ensure that these atrocities never happen again. There was a pledge of ‘never again’ after the Holocaust and we must be truthful to this and ensure that it never does happen again."

He told the MSPs that its intelligence and information suggested "in the clearest way" that Hamas was operating beneath hospitals and within kindergartens.

Gerry Coutts of the Scottish Friends of Palestine said: "MSPs are there as legislators to protect human life, not to build bridges with war criminals. This act of moral depravity brings the Holyrood parliament into disrepute. It is a stain on Scottish politics.

"This act of moral depravity brings the Holyrood parliament into disrepute. It is a stain on Scottish politics.

"I am disgusted that MSPs would go to such lengths to support Israel and have always been surprised by the level of support our politicians are willing to offer to an apartheid regime, now also committing a genocide.

"International law is very clear on the protection it affords hospitals during war and military occupation. To think anyone could lack the most basic humanity and is willing to target vital health facilities is unconscionable.

"Nobody could stand by and listen to anyone advocating the targeting of ambulances and hospitals working to help sick and injured civilians blown to pieces by military hardware. To aid such an idea is tantamount to a war crime."

A Palestine Solidarity official added: "It is disgusting that MSPs are accepting propaganda from one side in this longstanding war. Even if you do not accept the arguments for Palestinian people to have the right to establish a state in the West Bank, and object to Hamas, the idea that it is okay to target medical facilities is repugnant and cannot be encouraged."

The Herald: John Mason MSP

The MSPs that attended included SNP MSP for Glasgow Shettleston John Mason (above) who was criticised for claiming the International Criminal Court (ICC) is "biased against Israel".

The ICC chief prosecutor last week announced he would seek the arrest of senior leaders of Hamas, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and one of his senior ministers, for alleged war crimes.

Also there was Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser, the former deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour West Scotland MSP Paul O'Kane, Scottish Conservatives' shadow education secretary and Central Scotland MSP Stephen Kerr and Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary and Glasgow MSP Sandesh Gulhane.

Those members of the group that did not make it included the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Jackie Baillie, SNP Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber MSP Fergus Ewing and Sottish Labour West Scotland MSP Katy Clark.

Accompanying Mr Marmorstein was Hodaya Avzada, head of domestic and civil society affairs at the Israeli Embassy in the UK.

The parliamentary group's formation came after nine Scottish Conservative MSPs took part in the party’s first ever Scottish Parliamentary delegation to Israel and the occupied territories, where they met Israeli politicians, received security briefings from the Israeli Defence Force, and visited the West Bank security barrier.

The Herald revealed that the then Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson was heavily criticised over the visit to an 'illegal' Israeli settlement in the occupied Golan Heights.

The group of MSPs also visited a winery based in the Golan Heights.

The Herald: Ruth Davidson

The delegation that took the trip in August, 2016 included Mr Carlaw, the then shadow justice secretary now party leader Douglas Ross, then director of the Scottish Conservatives, Mark McInnes, then Scottish Conservative chief whip, John Lamont along with then shadow economy, jobs and fair work cabinet secretary Dean Lockhart, then shadow environment secretary Maurice Golden, then tourism and small businesses spokeswoman Rachel Hamilton, then community safety spokesman Oliver Mundell, then digital economy spokesman Jamie Greene, then further education, higher education and science spokesman Ross Thompson and then welfare, reform and equalities spokeswoman Annie Wells.

Al-Marsad, the only human rights organisation operating in Golan Height, raised concern about the visit saying the delegation did not contact it or other representatives of the Syrian community in the "occupied Syrian Golan" to get a "balanced view".

And they said they have repeatedly failed to get an explanation for the visit to the territory from Ms Davidson or any condemnation of the illegal settlement.

The group, which was described as an independent, not-for-profit international human rights organisation, said it was "highly concerned" that it sent the message that the Scottish Conservative party endorsed the illegal activities of such settlements.

The UN, in 1981, issued a resolution saying that Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights was illegal. The strategic ridge was captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Six Day War and formally annexed in 1981.

Since then, every year the UN passes a General Assembly resolution titled “The Occupied Syrian Golan” which reaffirms the illegality of the Israeli occupation and annexation.

The Israeli government disputes this position.

After raising Al-Marsld's concerns, the Scottish Conservatives said their position is the same as the UK government position which is "not to support illegal settlements".

Mr Carlaw said there was nothing ‘controversial’ whatsoever about the cross party group meeting, "again attended by SNP, Labour and Conservative MSPs as well as representatives of faith organisations and Scotland’s Chief Rabbi".

He said: "Any remarks Mr Marmorstein made were in respect of the immediate aftermath of the October 7th outrage. Following his remarks, Mr Marmorstein answered challenging questions on the conflict.

"Israelis taken hostage that day continue to be held by Hamas despite the calls from all UK political parties and the international community for their unconditional release. Several bodies of Israeli hostages taken were recently found in Rafah and returned to Israel. However, all deaths, on whatever side, are a tragedy in this conflict and I support calls from the UK Foreign Office for restraint and urgent efforts to bring about an equitable ceasefire.

"The Cross Party Group on Palestine regularly holds meetings and briefings to which all MSPs can attend.

"It is not a question of ‘objecting to Hamas’. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation and has no place in any peaceful future or outcome for Palestine, something the international community has to date failed to achieve and must achieve if there is to be any lasting settlement in the region."

Last week Mr Marmorstein circulated a statement from Israel's head of the security council and the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying that the charges of genocide brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice in the Hague were "false, outrageous and morally repugnant".

It said: "Following the horrific attack against the citizens of Israel on October 7th, 2023, Israel embarked upon a defensive and just war to eliminate Hamas and to secure the release of our hostages. Israel is acting based on its right to defend its territory and its citizens, consistent with its moral values and in compliance with international law, including international humanitarian law.

"Israel has not and will not conduct military actions in the Rafah area which may inflict on the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

"Israel will continue its efforts to enable humanitarian assistance and will act, in full compliance with the law, to reduce as much as possible harm caused to the civilian population in Gaza.

"Israel will continue to enable the Rafah crossing to remain open for the entry of humanitarian assistance from the Egyptian side of the border, and will prevent terror groups from controlling the passage."

The Israeli embassy in London was approached for comment.