A cross-party group of MSPs looking to "engage with Israel" will meet at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday for the first time in close to a year.

Building Bridges with Israel was set up 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".

It will meet on September 4, for the first time since November 15 last year.

The last meeting was opened by Rabbi Moshe Rubin, of Giffnock Newton Mearns Shul and Senior Rabbi of Scotland who led the group in prayer.

At that meeting, which occurred weeks after the October 7 attacks in which close to 800 Israeli civilians were killed, then then deputy ambassador for, Oren Marmorstein, said calls for a ceasefire would be a "gift to Hamas".

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The cross-party group includes convener Jackson Carlaw of the Scottish Conservatives and deputy convener Fergus Ewing of the Scottish National Party.

They are joined by Tory MSPs Rachael Hamilton, Douglas Ross, and Jamie Greene as well as Paul O'Kane of Scottish Labour and John Mason.

Mr Mason had the whip withdrawn by the SNP last month following comments he made about the ongoing conflict in the occupied Gaza strip.

Responding to the controversy over Angus Robertson meeting with Israel's deputy ambassador, Daniela Grudsky, with whom he had also met, he stated "If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed ten times as many (Palestinians)".

John MasonJohn Mason (Image: Andrew Milligan)

Following the October 7 attacks, Israel launched an offensive on Gaza which has led to the deaths of over 40,000 Palestinians and a charge of genocide being filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice.

The UK Government this week suspended around 30 of a total 350 licences for arms exports to Israel after a review found there was a risk they could be used in violation of international humanitarian law.

A spokesperson for the SNP chief whip said following Mr Mason's suspension: "To flippantly dismiss the death of more than 40,000 Palestinians is completely unacceptable. There can be no room in the SNP for this kind of intolerance.

"The chief whip has today withdrawn the whip from John Mason MSP with immediate effect, pending internal Parliamentary Group due process.

"The SNP Group will now meet to discuss the matter, with a recommendation that the whip be suspended from John Mason for a fixed period of time because of this utterly abhorrent comment."

Campaign group Mothers Against Genocide said: "This is not the Scotland of a decade ago. In 2014, another world was possible. That world, and the hopes our children may discover it, has died with the thousands of Palestinian children who have been killed at the altar of imperialism.  

"We’ll be there at the demo on Thursday outside the Scottish Parliament. We will continue to attend the rallies and demos every week. And we will never condemn those who have had everything taken from them, but the spirit to fight back.  

"We, Mothers Against Genocide, say, in one voice, in solidarity with our Palestinian brethren, that our revenge will be the laughter of our children."

In June Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, cancelled two planned visits to synagogues in Glasgow and Edinburgh after protests from Jewish congregants.

In the letter they said: "As Scottish Jews we are appalled that the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, is making a visit to Scotland while the killing continues in Gaza, and we call on the Scottish Government and our community leaders to send a strong message against her visit.

"As Scottish Jews we believe that Hotovely's values and politics have no place in our community and faith organisations. We are particularly appalled that the Israeli embassy has approached synagogues to offer meetings with hostages’ families, while Netanyahu and Likud, the party the Ambassador represented in Israel, have declared that the recovery and safety of the hostages are not a priority in their war on Gaza."

This week has seen hundreds of thousands of Israelis protest and go on strike over Mr Netanyahu's insistence of Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow band along Gaza’s border with Egypt, a sticking point to any ceasefire deal.

Hamas has offered to release all hostages in return for an end to the war, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.

Mr Netanyahu has pledged “total victory” over Hamas and blames it for the failure of the negotiations.