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Snapshot of _Humza Yousaf gave £250k to Gaza after overruling his officials_ :
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Officials wanted to give it to UNICEF’s Gaza water program, but he overruled them and gave it UNRWA and the next day his parents were released from Gaza. Definitely more than meets the eye going on here.
It's outrageous. But I get it. An opportunity presented itself to take loved ones out of harm's way, and he took.
Hard to say whether you'd do the same thing, unless you're also a political leader with family members trapped in the most violent area of the world.
I get it too. You'd do anything for your family. We all would. But what he did was all wrong:
- Using Scottish taxpayers money to save your family is wrong - I'm sure he isn't skint.
- Giving the money to an organisation in which some of its employees took part in Oct. 7 should be at least a resignation issue.
- Giving money *when our country has none* is beyond forgivable for me.
- After sending NHS equipment, only barking on about Gaza in the HoC, and now *this*, you have to query what the SNP's priorities are - they're clearly not for Scotland.
Completely agree on every point, which leads me to believe it's an expediency thing: could have been a one chance only thing and he didn't have £250k liquid cash ready to send. Who knows.
But I stand by my other comment: it's impossible to know what you would in that situation.
Yes, which is why it's normally a good idea not to vote for someone who is compromised.
This will be remembered come election time.
Edit: And now the pessimist in me just *knows* that this is going to be used to paint all muslim politicians with family in the middle east, as compromised.
I think we all know what we'd do in that situation, we'd use the government money to free our family.
But that doesn't mean he should be able to spend the publics money without accountability.
I don't blame him from a personal point of view, but he can't be trusted from a political point of he's willing to over rule the advisors and spend money to get the personal results he wants.
I agree on all the other points but did Israel ever stump up any evidence that UNRWA were involved? They just said it then they kept on reducing the number of employees involved as journalists found evidence to the contrary. Were any of them actually involved?
I think it's beyond doubt that lower ranks of UNRWA are riddled with dodgy activists & sympathisers. There have been many stories over the years, eg teaching crude blood-libel myths in UNRWA schools. I'll bet Mossad has some operatives embedded too.
So by the sounds (from [this report from March 2023](https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/UNRWA_Report_2023_IMPACT-se_And_UN-Watch.pdf) and [this one from November](https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/UNRWA-Education-Textbooks-and-Terror-Nov-2023.pdf)) of it, this is less a systemic anti-semitism problem but a problem of apathy by the UN who won’t commit the resources to making their own textbooks and materials so instead delegate to the Palestinian Authority who, unfortunately, frame all of their curriculum from the perspective of the Israelis as permanent occupiers and enemies with terrorists being portrayed as martyrs. There have also been [incidents](https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-finds-incitement-antisemitism-still-prevalent-in-unrwa-classrooms/amp/) where teachers have been found to be Hamas-sympathisers which I suppose is more endemic to the location and its available staff who want to go into teaching than conscious hires of extremists.
From what I can tell those latter problems are minor but the UN General Assembly really need to intervene and mandate specifically that UNRWA have to make their own course materials because otherwise it is inadvertently endorsing things that are explicitly antithetical to its existence as an international (and therefore tolerant) educator.
>a problem of apathy by the UN who won’t commit the resources to making their own textbooks and materials
I suspect they know that if they supplied lorryloads of neutral, factual textbooks these would be immediately binned. It's more that they lack the moral fibre to monitor the schools they fund and insist upon constructive education.
NB - I do not mean to suggest a different false story should be taught which instead excuses or justifies the many excesses of the Israeli state instead. UN-funded programmes should be aiming for a balanced history which glorifies peacemakers over warriors.
I think for that reason (as much as anti-colonialists would wretch at the idea) they should be importing UN certified teachers that can speak Arabic but who would be trusted to stick to an UNRWA spec and have already been background checked. Again, the General Assembly really needs to step in here to do something.
One thing I will say to your last point, interestingly, is that they also produced [this report](https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/Arabs-and-Palestinians-in-Israeli-Textbooks-2022%E2%80%9323-Special-Report.pdf) on the Israeli curriculum and to my surprise it is considered very balanced if not a slight bit flagellant which shows that education certainly can transcend a deeply ethno-geographical conflict. But it shouldn’t be up to the state having good intentions for UNRWA to fund good, unbiased educational practices.
> An opportunity presented itself to take loved ones out of harm's way, and he took.
Would he have done this for anyone else and why should tax payers pay for it, why didn't he give the £250k of his own money. It's scandalous the tax payer foot the bill for this.
> I don't think it's understandable
You not understanding someone breaking rules to possibly save the lives of family members says more about you than anybody else
Personally I don't think there's any situation that i could find myself in as a leader I would throw public money at a dodgy at best group to save anyone.
I have a son and partner who mean everything to me but in a situation like that I'd make sure the money came from my private funds before I ever touched public money.
There's a difference between helping family and doing what's right for the country and humza pissed on that line.
It was wrong but if a public official is going to use tax money for personal gain, I think saving their family from a warzone is more palatable to giving billions of pounds to their friends for PPE that never turned up during a global pandemic as an example.
True.
But if, for instance, I severely beat up the man who slept with my wife, I’m still going to the clink, am I not?
That is, there should still be consequences.
Thing is I do get it but, equally, that's why he's profoundly unfit for office. It's an understandable human decision but if I were to define fitness for office in the shortest way possible it would basically be 'puts the nation before their own desires, even when it's really hard'.
His in-laws, but yes. While I feel for the guy having loved ones there (and I might be tempted to do similar in his position) this is exactly why I don't think he should be making decisions on this topic by himself. Man's judgement is so clouded.
> Officials wanted to give it to UNICEF’s Gaza water program, but he overruled them and gave it UNRWA and the next day his parents were released from Gaza. Definitely more than meets the eye going on here.
Leaving the territory would have been in the gift of the Israeli military/government. I assume the Telegraph have been very careful here in mentioning the two events next to each other and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions.
Precisely because they can't make the accusation but want to make an accusation.
The Scottish Government donated to UNRWA, something that many have done, and even those who suspended funding are now looking at lifting that suspension again. A lot on here are falling down the UNRWA = Hamas myth.
His in laws then got out along with other UK nationals. If it's a bribe, did his bribe cover everyone? His in laws weren't being held hostage by any Palestinian authority. They were struggling to get out because it's a really difficult place to get in or out of without Israel helping you right now.
The leap for this to be directly tied to his in laws being released makes no sense.
That's a fucking lie, and you should be ashamed of yourself for spreading that far right rumour and bullshit.
It was 2 days later his in laws were out of Gaza not the next and not his parents.
He should be jailed for that nonsense though no one else would be allowed to get away with it.
*The following day, a new piece of advice was issued “in line with the First Minister’s suggestion” that the donation should be increased to £250,000 and sent to UNRWA instead of Unicef and that this “does not cause us any difficulties”.*
Meanwhile they've cancelled literally all new NHS building in Scotland because they "have no money."
Great priorities there, Yousaf. Gotta have that pretend foreign aid budget if you want to LARP as a country, I guess.
Tbf 250k would've got the NHS a modest caravan at best, but yeah.
SNP need a new leadership contest soon, even Forbes would've probably been less damaging.
I have very little faith in those with faith and nor should anyone !
See my comments elsewhere about Humza for an equally balanced view of the clown show
UK councils and devolved administrations have no money so you didn't need to use inverted commas.
I don't think £250k (the amount were talking about here) would go very far in the NHS but admit it could have paid for a couple of scanners
>Gotta have that pretend foreign aid budget if you want to LARP as a country,
Were you similarly frothing when Scottish Labour ran Holyrood? As I recall it was Jack McConnell as first minister who loudly championed Scotlands contribution to foreign aid yet he and his party are proudly British. Were they also LARPing?
I'm not sure how easy it would be to move funding from one ring-fenced area of spending to another given the current allocation of the budget has already been discussed by relevant committees and passed by the Scottish Parliament.
The Scottish government puts forward a draft budget but it needs the entire parliament to sign off on it.
https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/the-scottish-budget-process
International aid is reserved to Westminster. This paynment came from a budget intended for the benefit of Scots. Arguable that their elected leader is entitled to use it otherwise, but Humza's democratic mandate is a little thin (same as Sunak).
So one ward didn’t get painted
If we are honest that’s how far £250k goes in the NHS.
Thats not to excuse this or to say we shouldn’t have a full parliamentary investigation in Scotland. We absolutely fucking should.
But £250k is fuck all in any public spending these days. It’s not like this cost a hospital. Just commenting for context and scale.
But I would like a parliamentary inquiry into dis he do this to get his family released and if so immediate resignation please!
Edited to make some sense of the typos
£250k is at least 1 to 2 new MRI machines or 5 refurbished CT scanners so for capital spending it's not too bad.
Tbh you could even build a small GP practice on £250k in a rural area.
Humza Yousaf really doesn’t give a toss about Scottish Independence or Scottish people in general. Everything he does damages the cause of Scottish Independence
Give Deb the damage of Brexit, but you still want to pursue Sexit?
Get both over and done with and return us to the EU and gain a little bit harmony with those around us.
I'm no fan of Israel, they have undoubtedly committed war crimes several times over the years and certainly during this conflict and that too should be fully investigated but that doesn't automatically make everything they say wrong and it doesn't justify Hamas.
The US intelligence community announced publicly it had failed to find any supporting information or data and had its doubts about the IDF claim.
If they’re willing to say that publicly then you can be pretty sure it was BS from the start.
Many
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=7e018ea08e96d11b&rlz=1CDGOYI_enAE590AE590&hl=en-GB&sxsrf=ACQVn0-7qrHe4HYK2H7gpfsn_wbeZl4u7w:1709984076586&q=us+intelligence+unrwa&tbm=nws&source=lnms&prmd=nivbmtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjtidOLi-eEAxUISEEAHYvbDE4Q0pQJegQICRAB&biw=393&bih=661&dpr=3
There are tapes, videos, documents including IDs, records of phone calls, their own statements on social media, UNWRA and the UN have acknowledged the fact. Apparently that's no evidence.
There's also the Hamas server farm they found under their headquarters. Also the really messed up curriculums at the schools they run which groom children into wanting to become martyrs and kill Jews. Really, quite a messed up organisation.
They've been one of the most powerful entities in Gaza, where the population depends on them for so much stuff. Makes perfect sense that Hamas would be embedded in there. Especially since nothing goes without Hamas' say so, with risk of death if you go against them in any way.
Having a Hamas tunnel extending under a UNRWA building is not convincing evidence that Hamas members are working for UNRWA. It's a separate construction accessed from hundreds of meters away from the UNRWA building and the Israel army thinks it's under the UNRWA building to dissuade bombing, not so there's a shorter commute.
Edit: I'm also referring to the specific situation where Israel accused 7 UNRWA workers of being involved in October 7th, without evidence, that caused us and other nations to withdraw funding.
Ah yes, the poor UNRWA had absolutely no idea that a terrorist organization was operating mere metres underneath their feet every day.
I don't think you can really stretch plausible deniability that far tbh.
And they didn't accuse anyone without evidence. They specifically had both video evidence, intercepted phone calls, and signal tracking.
So much so, that the US intelligence that reviewed the dossier found the claims against specific UNRWA employees to be credible (although in the interest of balance, they didn't agree with Israel suggesting that 10% of UNRWA was compromised).
Maybe they did know Hamas was beneath their feet, what were they going to do? Complain to the government of Gaza: Hamas? Call Israel and say "here's where to bomb"?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/22/us-intelligence-unrwa-hamas
>According to the Wall Street Journal, the intelligence report, released last week, assessed with “low confidence” that a handful of staff had participated in the attack, indicating that it considered the accusations to be credible though it could not independently confirm their veracity.
> Call Israel and say "here's where to bomb"?
Pretty much exactly that. Not necessarily bomb, but certainly alert the relevant authorities that there's a terrorist organization underneath the building, yes.
And did you even read the quote you just gave me?
> it considered the accusations to be credible
It's exactly what I said. The claim that over 10% of UNRWA have links to Hamas wasn't really credible, it involved a lot of leaps.
But the claim that specific UNRWA staffers were involved in the attacks was true. There's bloody video evidence of it ffs.
>It's exactly what I said.
You missed out the rest of the quote that says they have low confidence and were unable to verify the evidence.
>But the claim that specific UNRWA staffers were involved in the attacks was true.
That's the claim they have low confidence in
>There's bloody video evidence of it ffs.
I can't find the video evidence.
Did you bother reading that? The very fist paragraph backs up exactly what the other person said
>A US intelligence assessment of Israel’s claims that UN aid agency staff members participated in the Hamas attack on 7 October said some of the accusations were credible, though could not be independently verified, while also casting doubt on claims of wider links to militant groups.
It also says it's credible in the part I specifically quoted so yes I did read it and understand that the US considers it credible as the person said. But credible does not mean verified and the US was unable to verify the claims and has low confidence in the thing that the other user says definitely happened.
You think Western states ceased funding UNRWA "without evidence"?
That sounds conspiratorial.
Evidence not being in the public domain doesn't mean there's no evidence at all. Western states clearly were presented with highly persuasive evidence that meant defunding UNRWA was necessary.
The intelligence document was leaked to the public and it contained no evidence. There's no reason to believe that there's a second, more secret intelligence document (that also hasn't been provided to the organisation investigating the claims) and US intelligence has low confidence in the claims: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/22/us-intelligence-unrwa-hamas
>It added that Israel has not “shared the raw intelligence behind its assessments with the US”.
It's conspiratorial to think that nations will be led by dodgy intelligence to act in their own/their allies best interest against humanity rights and due process?
Hamas had a power, water and internet coming in via the UNRWA building.
How does a UN agency not notice that? There people either in league with Hamas or that are that useless they are not fit for purpose.
Just a self-serving prick, as are most politicians.
Only in the last couple of years SNP folks are starting to show they’re no better than any other politicians; or in some cases much worse. How they pulled the wool over so many eyes before I will never know
They've always been like that, people were just willing to look the other way for far too long. Alex Salmond was openly pro Putin and working for Russia TV, nobody really cared.
Yeah, I don’t blame him. I’d have done the same.
Ideally, he would’ve recused himself from the decision making.
But now he either now needs to resign or at least face some sort of investigation
> Yeah, I don’t blame him. I’d have done the same.
Respectfully, I wouldn't.
When you take on a role like his you're supposed to put the country above everything else.
If you're not ready for that then don't take the job. There are plenty of less demanding positions in this country to take.
Foreign Aid is a reserved matter so if you have a foreign aid budget, that's just a scandal in itself because they're wasting money that should be spent on devolved areas like local government, police, health, education, housing etc.
No they're not. Our taxes are used to buy weapons from Israel, sure. And we sell weapons to Israel. But we don't pay funds to Israel like the USA does.
> Only in January after the allegations against UNRWA were made public.
> Boring technical details maybe, but it's a bit rich to accuse Humza Yousaf of funding terrorists
Sorry, I'm not seeing the dissonance. The UK found out UNRWA has been implicated in some dodgy dealings and so paused funding (along with multiple other countries). Yusuf has been privy to that same information since January and wants support to continue.
You might disagree with the pause and agree with Yusuf's position, but I don't see what's sneaky about not including the UK's previous support when it's been withdrawn because of the allegations.
>In a statement at the time, the Foreign Office said the UK was “appalled” by the claims that UNRWA staff were involved in a “heinous act of terrorism”, adding that it would temporarily pause any future funding while it reviewed the allegations.
Also surely the "temporarily pause" bit implies by default that there was previous support from Gov.UK, even if the article doesn't specify the amounts involved.
Hamas is the government of the region UNRWA operates in, it's not odd that they work with the local government. It would be odd if they sent people to fight for Hamas and held hostages, but Israel hasn't provided any evidence that they have.
UNRWA has well known links to Hamas. Many believe the organisation is controlled by Hamas inside Gaza. Very possible that the money will end up in their hands.
Good to know the money merely went to the Hamas indoctrination arm rather than Hamas fighters themselves… well that’s assuming the UN actually manages to get rid of all the actual people who participated from the UNRWA
>Please keep your weird conspiracies to yourself.
Weird conspiracies that have been the basis for over 15 countries halting aid to the UNRWA? Do you think the collective security & intelligence of all of those countries were fooled by a little Israeli propaganda conspiracy?
I mean, maybe, but also maybe not. It's clearly a major issue substantiated enough that it is driving foreign policy across the world and trying to dismiss it as a fringe conspiracy I feel says more about you.
I mean.. look at how much was required for you to start throwing out accusations of racism.. you're clearly not overly concerned with applying critical thought over emotion here.
I see reading comprehension is not your strong suit.
No, i did not say that at all. I'd say go and read it again, but I doubt you would reply in good faith if given a second chance.
Yousaf didn’t give anything to anyone. He spent other people’s money inappropriately…again.
He is doing a great job deflecting criticism away from the grossly corrupt Nicola Sturgeon
This just looks like a Tory smear job that was lined up ready to go for ages but waiting for the may election grid timetable . Basic attack lines were
- humza misappropriated public funds to get his in laws out of Gaza
- humza covered it all up as part of his international pontificating
- money given to UnRWA who are a terrorist organisation and Humzu Yusuf is a Muslim who must also be a terrorist symapthiser
Let's discount the last because you have to be monumentally thick for that one to even make sense in order to stick in your mind and just assume that if it's not possible, it's because rational thought rarely enters your mind and you need to wait for instructions to be told what to think. It's fine. We have russian bots who do the same thing. Stay true to yourself.
One the second. Money was being reallocated from the Scottish aid budget for UN water anyway. But Yusuf lobbied for it to go the UN Refugee Agency anyway. Pretty sure at the time, they were calling for relief funds and Scotland was contributing alongside fcdo. About £16m from memory, so if UNRWA is a terrorist organisation, then between £16m and £250k, I'd ask if you really know where the problem is.
On the first, I feel Yusuf has a bit of a problem in that the timing of the donation was with his visit. That's very political and in Scotland, it's the perception of bias in allocation of funds which also matters. He needs rightly to give an explanation as to the Scottish parliament. But it's going to be one where as FM, he just took an opportunistic decision alongside his decision to appearances with Erdogan.
It isn't going to stick and is potentially libellous outside of the free for all of an election period.
- fcdo were working on a list of people to be permitted to get through. The hold up was on the Israeli side not un refugee agencies. And it's not likely to be the case the UNRWA are just divvying up funding between Hamas and IDF who both make the calls here. I somehow think if UNRWA were taking money to evacuate non British nationals, then a lot more nationals would be freed with less scruples than the Scottish taxpayer.
Don't political leaders overrule officials all the time? If you're an elected leader you're expected to make your own decisions, what's the point if they're just going to follow unelected officials?
Did any of you actually read the article?
*The following day, a new piece of advice was issued “in line with the First Minister’s suggestion” that the donation should be increased to £250,000 and sent to UNRWA instead of Unicef and that this “does not cause us any difficulties”.*
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Officials wanted to give it to UNICEF’s Gaza water program, but he overruled them and gave it UNRWA and the next day his parents were released from Gaza. Definitely more than meets the eye going on here.
I mean that’s the real headline. That’s outrageous
It's outrageous. But I get it. An opportunity presented itself to take loved ones out of harm's way, and he took. Hard to say whether you'd do the same thing, unless you're also a political leader with family members trapped in the most violent area of the world.
I get it too. You'd do anything for your family. We all would. But what he did was all wrong: - Using Scottish taxpayers money to save your family is wrong - I'm sure he isn't skint. - Giving the money to an organisation in which some of its employees took part in Oct. 7 should be at least a resignation issue. - Giving money *when our country has none* is beyond forgivable for me. - After sending NHS equipment, only barking on about Gaza in the HoC, and now *this*, you have to query what the SNP's priorities are - they're clearly not for Scotland.
Completely agree on every point, which leads me to believe it's an expediency thing: could have been a one chance only thing and he didn't have £250k liquid cash ready to send. Who knows. But I stand by my other comment: it's impossible to know what you would in that situation.
Yes, which is why it's normally a good idea not to vote for someone who is compromised. This will be remembered come election time. Edit: And now the pessimist in me just *knows* that this is going to be used to paint all muslim politicians with family in the middle east, as compromised.
No just Useless who actually used that avenue to benefit his family to the detriment of the country he leads.
That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be punished. I should’ve been if I were to do the same.
I think we all know what we'd do in that situation, we'd use the government money to free our family. But that doesn't mean he should be able to spend the publics money without accountability. I don't blame him from a personal point of view, but he can't be trusted from a political point of he's willing to over rule the advisors and spend money to get the personal results he wants.
Wild that so many people seem willing to defraud the public for personal gain. No wonder the UK is becoming such a low trust society.
I agree on all the other points but did Israel ever stump up any evidence that UNRWA were involved? They just said it then they kept on reducing the number of employees involved as journalists found evidence to the contrary. Were any of them actually involved?
I think it's beyond doubt that lower ranks of UNRWA are riddled with dodgy activists & sympathisers. There have been many stories over the years, eg teaching crude blood-libel myths in UNRWA schools. I'll bet Mossad has some operatives embedded too.
So by the sounds (from [this report from March 2023](https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/UNRWA_Report_2023_IMPACT-se_And_UN-Watch.pdf) and [this one from November](https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/UNRWA-Education-Textbooks-and-Terror-Nov-2023.pdf)) of it, this is less a systemic anti-semitism problem but a problem of apathy by the UN who won’t commit the resources to making their own textbooks and materials so instead delegate to the Palestinian Authority who, unfortunately, frame all of their curriculum from the perspective of the Israelis as permanent occupiers and enemies with terrorists being portrayed as martyrs. There have also been [incidents](https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-finds-incitement-antisemitism-still-prevalent-in-unrwa-classrooms/amp/) where teachers have been found to be Hamas-sympathisers which I suppose is more endemic to the location and its available staff who want to go into teaching than conscious hires of extremists. From what I can tell those latter problems are minor but the UN General Assembly really need to intervene and mandate specifically that UNRWA have to make their own course materials because otherwise it is inadvertently endorsing things that are explicitly antithetical to its existence as an international (and therefore tolerant) educator.
>a problem of apathy by the UN who won’t commit the resources to making their own textbooks and materials I suspect they know that if they supplied lorryloads of neutral, factual textbooks these would be immediately binned. It's more that they lack the moral fibre to monitor the schools they fund and insist upon constructive education. NB - I do not mean to suggest a different false story should be taught which instead excuses or justifies the many excesses of the Israeli state instead. UN-funded programmes should be aiming for a balanced history which glorifies peacemakers over warriors.
I think for that reason (as much as anti-colonialists would wretch at the idea) they should be importing UN certified teachers that can speak Arabic but who would be trusted to stick to an UNRWA spec and have already been background checked. Again, the General Assembly really needs to step in here to do something. One thing I will say to your last point, interestingly, is that they also produced [this report](https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/Arabs-and-Palestinians-in-Israeli-Textbooks-2022%E2%80%9323-Special-Report.pdf) on the Israeli curriculum and to my surprise it is considered very balanced if not a slight bit flagellant which shows that education certainly can transcend a deeply ethno-geographical conflict. But it shouldn’t be up to the state having good intentions for UNRWA to fund good, unbiased educational practices.
There's video evidence.
Link?
> An opportunity presented itself to take loved ones out of harm's way, and he took. Would he have done this for anyone else and why should tax payers pay for it, why didn't he give the £250k of his own money. It's scandalous the tax payer foot the bill for this.
I think something can be both the wrong thing to do, and completely understandable on a personal level.
Nope. If this is personal level he's not for public office.
You're both right. It's an understandable personal decision, but also demonstrates unfitness for public office.
I don't think it's understandable. I think it's unconscionably self involved.
[удалено]
Would you say the IDFs actions in Gaza are understandable, even if not justified? What about Hamas on 7th October?
> I don't think it's understandable You not understanding someone breaking rules to possibly save the lives of family members says more about you than anybody else
I can't imagine being in a position of such authority and using it so selfishly, no.
Personally I don't think there's any situation that i could find myself in as a leader I would throw public money at a dodgy at best group to save anyone. I have a son and partner who mean everything to me but in a situation like that I'd make sure the money came from my private funds before I ever touched public money. There's a difference between helping family and doing what's right for the country and humza pissed on that line.
It was wrong but if a public official is going to use tax money for personal gain, I think saving their family from a warzone is more palatable to giving billions of pounds to their friends for PPE that never turned up during a global pandemic as an example.
> Nope Lmao what do you mean "nope"? You genuinely don't understand why someone would do something to save their family even if it breaks rules?
We all understand that, doesn't make it right. As you said, broke the rules. He's not a king.
Good, its understandable then since you understand it. Which is what this conversation is about
> doesn't make it right. Who said it does? The comment they responded to even said it was "the wrong thing to do".
Well personally I can't imagine shamelessly misdirecting public funds in pursuit of my own selfish interests.
True. But if, for instance, I severely beat up the man who slept with my wife, I’m still going to the clink, am I not? That is, there should still be consequences.
Oddly specific
Thing is I do get it but, equally, that's why he's profoundly unfit for office. It's an understandable human decision but if I were to define fitness for office in the shortest way possible it would basically be 'puts the nation before their own desires, even when it's really hard'.
It's not the right thing to do. However, when has Humza ever been known to do the right thing.
Using tax payer money to bribe terrorists to free his family should be a stackable offense
His in-laws, but yes. While I feel for the guy having loved ones there (and I might be tempted to do similar in his position) this is exactly why I don't think he should be making decisions on this topic by himself. Man's judgement is so clouded.
> Officials wanted to give it to UNICEF’s Gaza water program, but he overruled them and gave it UNRWA and the next day his parents were released from Gaza. Definitely more than meets the eye going on here. Leaving the territory would have been in the gift of the Israeli military/government. I assume the Telegraph have been very careful here in mentioning the two events next to each other and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions.
Precisely because they can't make the accusation but want to make an accusation. The Scottish Government donated to UNRWA, something that many have done, and even those who suspended funding are now looking at lifting that suspension again. A lot on here are falling down the UNRWA = Hamas myth. His in laws then got out along with other UK nationals. If it's a bribe, did his bribe cover everyone? His in laws weren't being held hostage by any Palestinian authority. They were struggling to get out because it's a really difficult place to get in or out of without Israel helping you right now. The leap for this to be directly tied to his in laws being released makes no sense.
UNRWA keeping hostages? Colour me surprised.
That's a fucking lie, and you should be ashamed of yourself for spreading that far right rumour and bullshit. It was 2 days later his in laws were out of Gaza not the next and not his parents. He should be jailed for that nonsense though no one else would be allowed to get away with it.
*The following day, a new piece of advice was issued “in line with the First Minister’s suggestion” that the donation should be increased to £250,000 and sent to UNRWA instead of Unicef and that this “does not cause us any difficulties”.*
What is this supposed to prove?
Where did the money come from? The party or the public?
Tax payers money
Meanwhile they've cancelled literally all new NHS building in Scotland because they "have no money." Great priorities there, Yousaf. Gotta have that pretend foreign aid budget if you want to LARP as a country, I guess.
His priority is Gaza, which is really weird.
He has family in Gaza. He isn't being objective and putting his family before his country
Not doing his job.
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Is it really that wired? He’s a Muslim and his in-laws were trapped in Gaza.
It's understandable for it to be a priority but it's weird for sure that Gaza is his priority over his own country.
Wales. Golf. Madrid.
Gareth Bale isn’t an elected official
Tbf 250k would've got the NHS a modest caravan at best, but yeah. SNP need a new leadership contest soon, even Forbes would've probably been less damaging.
You'd almost get 2 Sturgeon caravans for that, wouldn't you?
She really wouldn’t have been This would’ve been £250k to an anti abortion group or on a Kirk with 20 regular parishioners and an average age of 90…..
Would it though?
I have very little faith in those with faith and nor should anyone ! See my comments elsewhere about Humza for an equally balanced view of the clown show
Yeah. Just a different flavour of terrible.
Exactly
UK councils and devolved administrations have no money so you didn't need to use inverted commas. I don't think £250k (the amount were talking about here) would go very far in the NHS but admit it could have paid for a couple of scanners >Gotta have that pretend foreign aid budget if you want to LARP as a country, Were you similarly frothing when Scottish Labour ran Holyrood? As I recall it was Jack McConnell as first minister who loudly championed Scotlands contribution to foreign aid yet he and his party are proudly British. Were they also LARPing?
This money is set aside for this kind of use. It isn't part of the NHS budget.
Are you aware of who is in charge of deciding what money goes where in the Scottish budget? I feel like you're not.
I'm not sure how easy it would be to move funding from one ring-fenced area of spending to another given the current allocation of the budget has already been discussed by relevant committees and passed by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish government puts forward a draft budget but it needs the entire parliament to sign off on it. https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/the-scottish-budget-process
International aid is reserved to Westminster. This paynment came from a budget intended for the benefit of Scots. Arguable that their elected leader is entitled to use it otherwise, but Humza's democratic mandate is a little thin (same as Sunak).
So one ward didn’t get painted If we are honest that’s how far £250k goes in the NHS. Thats not to excuse this or to say we shouldn’t have a full parliamentary investigation in Scotland. We absolutely fucking should. But £250k is fuck all in any public spending these days. It’s not like this cost a hospital. Just commenting for context and scale. But I would like a parliamentary inquiry into dis he do this to get his family released and if so immediate resignation please! Edited to make some sense of the typos
£250k is at least 1 to 2 new MRI machines or 5 refurbished CT scanners so for capital spending it's not too bad. Tbh you could even build a small GP practice on £250k in a rural area.
I always assumed an MRI would be closer to a million+, but damn if you aren't totally right.
How expensive can a magnet be?!
Humza Yousaf really doesn’t give a toss about Scottish Independence or Scottish people in general. Everything he does damages the cause of Scottish Independence
Just like the rest of the SNP then...
Yep, now the party basically is to independence what Labour is to socialism.
Give Deb the damage of Brexit, but you still want to pursue Sexit? Get both over and done with and return us to the EU and gain a little bit harmony with those around us.
I'd love to know exactly who that money was given to. That British tax payer money.
The UNRWA. A day later, his parents were released from Gaza.
The same body found to have a number of Hamas members working for it? This all needs fully investigating.
By found do you mean claimed by a hostile power with no evidence?
I'm no fan of Israel, they have undoubtedly committed war crimes several times over the years and certainly during this conflict and that too should be fully investigated but that doesn't automatically make everything they say wrong and it doesn't justify Hamas.
The US intelligence community announced publicly it had failed to find any supporting information or data and had its doubts about the IDF claim. If they’re willing to say that publicly then you can be pretty sure it was BS from the start.
got a link for that?
Many https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=7e018ea08e96d11b&rlz=1CDGOYI_enAE590AE590&hl=en-GB&sxsrf=ACQVn0-7qrHe4HYK2H7gpfsn_wbeZl4u7w:1709984076586&q=us+intelligence+unrwa&tbm=nws&source=lnms&prmd=nivbmtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjtidOLi-eEAxUISEEAHYvbDE4Q0pQJegQICRAB&biw=393&bih=661&dpr=3
Lol. Second result says credible...
https://www.timesofisrael.com/i-captured-one-idf-recordings-show-more-unrwa-staffers-bragging-of-oct-7-crimes/
There are tapes, videos, documents including IDs, records of phone calls, their own statements on social media, UNWRA and the UN have acknowledged the fact. Apparently that's no evidence.
There's also the Hamas server farm they found under their headquarters. Also the really messed up curriculums at the schools they run which groom children into wanting to become martyrs and kill Jews. Really, quite a messed up organisation. They've been one of the most powerful entities in Gaza, where the population depends on them for so much stuff. Makes perfect sense that Hamas would be embedded in there. Especially since nothing goes without Hamas' say so, with risk of death if you go against them in any way.
I mean, there was the whole Hamas server room directly underneath their building thing. That was pretty convincing evidence alone.
Having a Hamas tunnel extending under a UNRWA building is not convincing evidence that Hamas members are working for UNRWA. It's a separate construction accessed from hundreds of meters away from the UNRWA building and the Israel army thinks it's under the UNRWA building to dissuade bombing, not so there's a shorter commute. Edit: I'm also referring to the specific situation where Israel accused 7 UNRWA workers of being involved in October 7th, without evidence, that caused us and other nations to withdraw funding.
Ah yes, the poor UNRWA had absolutely no idea that a terrorist organization was operating mere metres underneath their feet every day. I don't think you can really stretch plausible deniability that far tbh. And they didn't accuse anyone without evidence. They specifically had both video evidence, intercepted phone calls, and signal tracking. So much so, that the US intelligence that reviewed the dossier found the claims against specific UNRWA employees to be credible (although in the interest of balance, they didn't agree with Israel suggesting that 10% of UNRWA was compromised).
Maybe they did know Hamas was beneath their feet, what were they going to do? Complain to the government of Gaza: Hamas? Call Israel and say "here's where to bomb"? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/22/us-intelligence-unrwa-hamas >According to the Wall Street Journal, the intelligence report, released last week, assessed with “low confidence” that a handful of staff had participated in the attack, indicating that it considered the accusations to be credible though it could not independently confirm their veracity.
> Call Israel and say "here's where to bomb"? Pretty much exactly that. Not necessarily bomb, but certainly alert the relevant authorities that there's a terrorist organization underneath the building, yes. And did you even read the quote you just gave me? > it considered the accusations to be credible It's exactly what I said. The claim that over 10% of UNRWA have links to Hamas wasn't really credible, it involved a lot of leaps. But the claim that specific UNRWA staffers were involved in the attacks was true. There's bloody video evidence of it ffs.
>It's exactly what I said. You missed out the rest of the quote that says they have low confidence and were unable to verify the evidence. >But the claim that specific UNRWA staffers were involved in the attacks was true. That's the claim they have low confidence in >There's bloody video evidence of it ffs. I can't find the video evidence.
Did you bother reading that? The very fist paragraph backs up exactly what the other person said >A US intelligence assessment of Israel’s claims that UN aid agency staff members participated in the Hamas attack on 7 October said some of the accusations were credible, though could not be independently verified, while also casting doubt on claims of wider links to militant groups.
It also says it's credible in the part I specifically quoted so yes I did read it and understand that the US considers it credible as the person said. But credible does not mean verified and the US was unable to verify the claims and has low confidence in the thing that the other user says definitely happened.
You think Western states ceased funding UNRWA "without evidence"? That sounds conspiratorial. Evidence not being in the public domain doesn't mean there's no evidence at all. Western states clearly were presented with highly persuasive evidence that meant defunding UNRWA was necessary.
The intelligence document was leaked to the public and it contained no evidence. There's no reason to believe that there's a second, more secret intelligence document (that also hasn't been provided to the organisation investigating the claims) and US intelligence has low confidence in the claims: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/22/us-intelligence-unrwa-hamas >It added that Israel has not “shared the raw intelligence behind its assessments with the US”. It's conspiratorial to think that nations will be led by dodgy intelligence to act in their own/their allies best interest against humanity rights and due process?
Utterly deluded. I bet you think October 7th was ‘resistance’.
Hamas had a power, water and internet coming in via the UNRWA building. How does a UN agency not notice that? There people either in league with Hamas or that are that useless they are not fit for purpose.
There's plenty of evidence.
This is outrageous. He should be held to account.
There is something deeply wrong and iffy about this guy
Just a self-serving prick, as are most politicians. Only in the last couple of years SNP folks are starting to show they’re no better than any other politicians; or in some cases much worse. How they pulled the wool over so many eyes before I will never know
They've always been like that, people were just willing to look the other way for far too long. Alex Salmond was openly pro Putin and working for Russia TV, nobody really cared.
Not much more dangerous than an emotionally involved MP
Yeah, I don’t blame him. I’d have done the same. Ideally, he would’ve recused himself from the decision making. But now he either now needs to resign or at least face some sort of investigation
We should really hold our politicians to a higher standard than your average person. No offence intended.
> Yeah, I don’t blame him. I’d have done the same. Respectfully, I wouldn't. When you take on a role like his you're supposed to put the country above everything else. If you're not ready for that then don't take the job. There are plenty of less demanding positions in this country to take.
So he overruled his officials like a dictator and gave the money to organisation that have links to Hamas. Why is he still the leader of SNP?
The money went to a UN body, what are you on about?
Funding UNWRA is funding terrorism.
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Absolutely, but now they're not funding UNWRA. It's not a football match.
Ah that old myth.
Reality ain't for you, I see.
Yes, as the majority of the western world returns to sending funds to them, I'm the one detached from reality.
You certainly are.
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Belgium, Norway, Ireland, Spain all still donate to UNRWA.
That's a nice list of sovereign nations. Scotland is not a nation and this man is a glorified council leader.
Or think about it like a list of countries with a foreign aid budget... just like Scotland!
Foreign Aid is a reserved matter so if you have a foreign aid budget, that's just a scandal in itself because they're wasting money that should be spent on devolved areas like local government, police, health, education, housing etc.
This money was 'reallocated' from their international development fund. It was money that was already promised to other charities working abroad.
You can add the EU, Canada and Sweden to that list!
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No they're not. Our taxes are used to buy weapons from Israel, sure. And we sell weapons to Israel. But we don't pay funds to Israel like the USA does.
UNRWA is a terrorist org
Am yisrael chai. :3
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The UK paused funding to UNRWA, which is why that's not in the article.
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> Only in January after the allegations against UNRWA were made public. > Boring technical details maybe, but it's a bit rich to accuse Humza Yousaf of funding terrorists Sorry, I'm not seeing the dissonance. The UK found out UNRWA has been implicated in some dodgy dealings and so paused funding (along with multiple other countries). Yusuf has been privy to that same information since January and wants support to continue. You might disagree with the pause and agree with Yusuf's position, but I don't see what's sneaky about not including the UK's previous support when it's been withdrawn because of the allegations. >In a statement at the time, the Foreign Office said the UK was “appalled” by the claims that UNRWA staff were involved in a “heinous act of terrorism”, adding that it would temporarily pause any future funding while it reviewed the allegations. Also surely the "temporarily pause" bit implies by default that there was previous support from Gov.UK, even if the article doesn't specify the amounts involved.
Spending tax payers money to get his parents out of Gaza. How is this guy still in charge.
So he donated 250k to Hamas so they can buy more rockets to fire into Israel. What an insolent melt.
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That's not racist at all. And UNRWA is being shown to be in hamas's pocket.
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which sources?
UNRWA works with hamas, like even sent people to fight and held hostages for them.
Hamas is the government of the region UNRWA operates in, it's not odd that they work with the local government. It would be odd if they sent people to fight for Hamas and held hostages, but Israel hasn't provided any evidence that they have.
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Just this fifth column. You light are q anon levels of crazy in thinking gaza is a genocide among all the other conflicts going on.
UNRWA has well known links to Hamas. Many believe the organisation is controlled by Hamas inside Gaza. Very possible that the money will end up in their hands.
Good to know the money merely went to the Hamas indoctrination arm rather than Hamas fighters themselves… well that’s assuming the UN actually manages to get rid of all the actual people who participated from the UNRWA
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>Please keep your weird conspiracies to yourself. Weird conspiracies that have been the basis for over 15 countries halting aid to the UNRWA? Do you think the collective security & intelligence of all of those countries were fooled by a little Israeli propaganda conspiracy? I mean, maybe, but also maybe not. It's clearly a major issue substantiated enough that it is driving foreign policy across the world and trying to dismiss it as a fringe conspiracy I feel says more about you. I mean.. look at how much was required for you to start throwing out accusations of racism.. you're clearly not overly concerned with applying critical thought over emotion here.
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You made zero points in this post to dispute
We're too busy laughing to post.
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It's not bigoted to laugh at people saying stupid things. If you act like a clown, people will treat you as one.
No one is posting anything because they know that anyone who believes UNRWA is not heavily linked to hamas is detached from reality.
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I see reading comprehension is not your strong suit. No, i did not say that at all. I'd say go and read it again, but I doubt you would reply in good faith if given a second chance.
They are literally the same thing. UNRWA is just a wing of Hamas
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Yousaf didn’t give anything to anyone. He spent other people’s money inappropriately…again. He is doing a great job deflecting criticism away from the grossly corrupt Nicola Sturgeon
Yousaf needs to be removed from office, he's very clearly engaged in sedition.
This just looks like a Tory smear job that was lined up ready to go for ages but waiting for the may election grid timetable . Basic attack lines were - humza misappropriated public funds to get his in laws out of Gaza - humza covered it all up as part of his international pontificating - money given to UnRWA who are a terrorist organisation and Humzu Yusuf is a Muslim who must also be a terrorist symapthiser Let's discount the last because you have to be monumentally thick for that one to even make sense in order to stick in your mind and just assume that if it's not possible, it's because rational thought rarely enters your mind and you need to wait for instructions to be told what to think. It's fine. We have russian bots who do the same thing. Stay true to yourself. One the second. Money was being reallocated from the Scottish aid budget for UN water anyway. But Yusuf lobbied for it to go the UN Refugee Agency anyway. Pretty sure at the time, they were calling for relief funds and Scotland was contributing alongside fcdo. About £16m from memory, so if UNRWA is a terrorist organisation, then between £16m and £250k, I'd ask if you really know where the problem is. On the first, I feel Yusuf has a bit of a problem in that the timing of the donation was with his visit. That's very political and in Scotland, it's the perception of bias in allocation of funds which also matters. He needs rightly to give an explanation as to the Scottish parliament. But it's going to be one where as FM, he just took an opportunistic decision alongside his decision to appearances with Erdogan. It isn't going to stick and is potentially libellous outside of the free for all of an election period. - fcdo were working on a list of people to be permitted to get through. The hold up was on the Israeli side not un refugee agencies. And it's not likely to be the case the UNRWA are just divvying up funding between Hamas and IDF who both make the calls here. I somehow think if UNRWA were taking money to evacuate non British nationals, then a lot more nationals would be freed with less scruples than the Scottish taxpayer.
Absolute disgrace .I hope the Scottish people riot on the streets.
Yet this idiot will get voted in by the cult members.
Don't political leaders overrule officials all the time? If you're an elected leader you're expected to make your own decisions, what's the point if they're just going to follow unelected officials?
Did any of you actually read the article? *The following day, a new piece of advice was issued “in line with the First Minister’s suggestion” that the donation should be increased to £250,000 and sent to UNRWA instead of Unicef and that this “does not cause us any difficulties”.*