(Image: Steve Welsh/ PA Wire)
Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay has admitted she "struggled to find the words" when asked whether Israel has a right to exist last week,
When the question was put to her by reporters at last weekend's SNP conference, where she was a guest speaker, she hesitated, describing it as "a difficult one", before adding that Israelis "absolutely should have the right to have somewhere to be and to be able to live in peace".
Read more
- Scottish Greens co-leader says 'realisation' of Zionism is racist
- Gillian Mackay eyes key government role in strongest hint of fresh SNP-Green deal yet
- Scottish Green co-leader ‘not interested’ in becoming First Minister but reveals pick
Speaking to BBC Scotland from her party's conference in Inverness, Ms Mackay was asked whether she now had an answer to the question.
She said: "I've held my hands up. I struggled to find the words to that answer at the time, because it's actually really important how we speak about this.
"States don't have a right to exist, but people do. And actually what we need to do is find a way forward on peace between the two states to make sure that we actually see that right of self-determination for both people become a reality."
Ms Mackay was also pressed on the position of her co-leader Ross Greer, who told the Times on Friday that the UK should reverse its 2021 decision to proscribe the political wing of Hamas, calling it "a mistake" and a "barrier to peace".
Mr Greer said the military wing should remain banned.
Ms Mackay said: "Hamas have committed war crimes, and they absolutely are a terrorist organisation, and actually making sure that all the violence on all sides stop, that people stop being bombed, that it's innocent civilians that are the heart of this.
"And while we're all arguing about definitions, thousands of children will be killed over the weekend by bombing.
"I'm really interested, and I think politicians across the globe should be interested in how we bring about peace in the region, to make sure that that self-determination for those people can actually be expressed properly, because while they are under this level of bombardment, that can't possibly happen."
Mr Greer compared the political wing of Hamas to Sinn Féin during the Northern Ireland peace process. He told the Times it was necessary to engage with the political wing to reach peace.
Read more
- Ross Greer says Zionism is racist and Israel's creation was ethnic cleansing
- Edinburgh councillors to debate Greens’ controversial ‘Zionism is racism’ motion
- Gillian Mackay eyes key government role in strongest hint of fresh SNP-Green deal yet
The row follows the Green Party of England and Wales voting this month to define Zionism as a form of racism. Mr Greer told BBC Radio Scotland on October 6 that he agreed and that the creation of Israel was "an act of racism".
Ms Mackay said last week that Zionism as realised through Israeli government policy was racist.
First Minister John Swinney has said he does not agree with the English and Welsh motion and that racism should be defined in law, not at party conferences.