The Israeli Embassy in London has posted a vacancy for a new ‘Scotland Affairs Officer’. https://www.myjobscotland.gov.uk/organisations/embassy-israel/jobs/israel-scotland-affairs-officer-348158 Duties for this ‘outreach ambassador’ will include ‘‘cultivat[ing] relationships with various target audiences”, including the Scottish Parliament and other key political, religious, academic, media and civil institutions. Contrary to its ‘job description’, the real, deceitful purpose of this posting couldn’t be more obvious. The true remit will involve helping to extend the Israeli regime’s influence across such fields and platforms in a rearguard effort to stem its rapidly failing ‘reputation’ in Scotland. Not coincidentally, the Embassy appointment comes in the wake of the recent damning Amnesty report formally castigating Israel as an apartheid state. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/ It also signals the deepening inability of pro-Israel lobby groups and their political allies in Scotland to whitewash and disguise the regime’s mass crimes against occupied and besieged Palestinians, in order to stem Israel’s growing pariah status. If all major human rights organisations now concur with every Palestinian civil society body that Israel is practicing systematic racism, what’s preventing any ‘progressive’ parliament, institution or supposedly ‘anti-racist’ campaign group in Scotland from openly denouncing those same racist-supporting bodies and Embassy ‘ambassadors’? Alas, unlike rising public criticism of Israel across Scottish society, it is lamentably clear that the Scottish Government itself have been severely complicit in failing to challenge Israel and its apartheid apparatus. It’s unconditional acceptance of the deeply-troubling IHRA agenda on weaponised antisemitism is a crucial case in point. Which is why we are now seeing a concerted international rejection of this mendaciously-crafted document. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/04/human-rights-and-other-civil-society-groups-urge-united-nations-respect-human It is hoped that all moral-standing MSPs and other leading figures in Scotland will intensify their efforts to contest this pernicious legislation, call-out Israel’s latest hasbara project, and expose its new apartheid ambassador at every opportunity. Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign October 2023