THE SNP has been urged to sack one of their candidates in May’s council election after The Herald uncovered an antisemitic post on his social media.
On Christmas Eve in 2015, Wullie Graham, who is running to be a councillor for the Pollok ward in Glasgow, shared a picture of a man wearing a yarmulke and a young girl, both holding guns, with the caption, “Bloody sickening that Israeli Jews bring up their kids to hate and kill.”
The comment has sparked anger from Jewish groups and opposition politicians.
Glasgow Conservatives group leader Cllr Thomas Kerr said: “It’s clear from his disgusting, antisemitic post that this candidate is not fit to stand for – still less hold – public office.
“These comments are so beyond the pale, that the SNP must sack him as a candidate immediately. Such hate-filled bigotry has no place in our political discourse.”
Labour’s leader on Glasgow City Council, Cllr Malcolm Cunning said: “Those with ambitions to elected office should not be parroting antisemitic tropes or spreading falsehoods on social media.
“Mr Graham must issue an unqualified apology or be deselected by his party immediately.”
Sammy Stein from Glasgow Friends of Israel said: “I would remind your readers that it is not unusual for Palestinian terrorists to attack and kill Israeli civilians and therefore it is not unreasonable to ensure that even some children know how to defend themselves.
“This does not mean that they are taught to hate or kill indiscriminately. He could come to our peace advocacy stall in Buchanan Street on any Saturday to exchange views about this matter but I am pretty sure he will turn this invitation down.”
While the image is used on a number of anti-Israeli websites, the man pictured is Bill Bernstein, a former gun shop owner from Nashville.
The image of the Orthodox Jewish weapons dealer and his daughter, Gertrude, was taken in 2004, by the gun photographer and right to bear and keep arms activist, Oleg Volk.
Mr Graham is a stalwart of the party in Glasgow’s Southside and has been pictured alongside local MSPs, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Humza Yousaf.
An SNP spokesperson said: “The National Secretary has been made aware and is looking into this”
Mr Graham’s Facebook post was deleted shortly after The Herald approached the party.
Yesterday, the SNP criticised the Conservatives over their candidate selection process, describing it as “incompetent”.
SNP MSP Siobhian Brown claimed Douglas Ross's party had "not learnt their lesson of candidate selection failure and continue to push aside any morality in favour of picking anyone whose basic qualification is maintaining Westminster control in Scotland.”
The SNP was caught up in an antisemitism storm during the 2019 general election when they were forced to sack Neale Hanvey as the candidate for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath for making two “deeply offensive” about the financier George Soros and Israel’s policies towards Palestinians.
However, as nominations had closed, his name remained on the ballot paper, and he ended up winning the seat.
Though he initially sat at Westminster as an independent he was eventually welcomed back into the party. However, last year he was one of the first SNP politicians to defect to Alex Salmond’s Alba.
Last month, the First Minister was confronted during a video call with students arranged by the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities over her government’s arrangement with the Scottish Greens.
Jonathan Manevitch, its student representative, asked Ms Sturgeon: 'What are your feelings on the question of the Scottish Green Party having not signed up to IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance], as the SNP has done, definition of anti-Semitism?
'Given two Green MSPs [Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater] sit in your government as ministers, there is a concern among Jewish people that there is perhaps a blind spot towards issues of anti-Semitism relating to the Green Party'.'
Ms Sturgeon said: 'I don't make decisions for the Green Party. My party has signed the IHRA definition, my government has signed up to the IHRA definition, I would encourage all parties and organisations and institutions to do so.
'There is not an exemption for the Green ministers. All ministers in my government, without exception, are expected to comply with that.'
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article