Labour MSP reportedly called for Israel’s ‘crushing defeat’ after 7 October attacks

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has defended a newly elected MSP after reports emerged that he called for Israel to suffer a “crushing defeat” during a speech delivered months after the 7 October Hamas attacks.

Irshad Ahmed, who represents the Edinburgh and Lothians East region in the Scottish Parliament, made the remarks during an Urdu-language speech at a Pakistani cultural centre on 7 January, 2024.

According to a translation published by the Daily Telegraph, Ahmed told the audience: “Friends, there are a few things linked to the year 2023 that has passed which we need to remember, especially those matters which have taken place in Palestine, we all condemn it as Muslims.

“And since 2024 has come, I ask all of you to pray that Allah gives freedom to Palestine and may Allah free the Muslims of Palestine who are victims of oppression, and may Israel get a crushing defeat.”

The speech was delivered around three months after Hamas terrorists killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted hundreds more during the 7 October attacks.

Timothy Lovat, chairman of the Jewish Council of Scotland, told The Telegraph: “This is entirely unacceptable from anyone, but from someone purporting to be in a position of power is inexcusable”.

Scottish Conservative chief whip Tim Eagle also criticised the remarks, saying they were “absolutely beyond the pale” and calling on Scottish Labour to take action.

But speaking to journalists at Holyrood, Sarwar questioned whether the translation accurately reflected Ahmed’s meaning.

“Look, there can be an argument about right translations et cetera,” he said. “I think we need to be really, really careful, though, that just because someone has said something in a different language that somehow people should add an air of suspicion on top of that.”

Asked specifically about the phrase “crushing defeat”, Sarwar said: “That’s not certainly the translation that I felt from what he said.”

He added that his understanding was that Ahmed wanted “the war to end”, “the people in Gaza to be free”, and for Israelis and Palestinians to live “side by side in a two-state solution”.

Sarwar also warned against assumptions being made because a politician was speaking “in a different language, or from a different faith, or a different colour”.

Ahmed later issued a statement saying: “All lives should be valued equally and I want people in both Israel and Palestine to be able to live in peace and security. I want to see stability in the region and a two-state solution that provides lasting peace.”

Scottish Labour currently holds 17 seats at Holyrood, tied with Reform UK as the joint second-largest opposition party in the Scottish Parliament.