image source, Getty Images
Humza Yousaf, Scotland's first minister, has described accusations that there may have been a conflict of interest over the transfer of funds to Gaza as an “outrageous slander” and a “far-right conspiracy”.
The Scottish Government donated £250,000 to UNRWA aid agencies in November 2023, at the same time that Yousaf's in-laws were among the millions of people stuck in the enclave.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday that Mr Yousaf is accused of ignoring recommendations from officials to donate between £100,000 and £200,000 to UNICEF, another UN agency.
In a series of posts on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Yousaf called the story an “Islamophobic attack” and an attempt to link him to terrorism.
“For most of my political career, I have fought against insinuations from some in the media that link me to terrorism, despite my lifelong campaign against terrorism,” he said.
“The Telegraph's latest smear is just a continuation of these Islamophobic attacks.”
The first pastor added, “Because of my faith and race, there will always be those, especially the far right, who desperately try to 'prove' that my loyalties lie elsewhere. “I'm the fifth columnist in the only country I've written for,” he added. This country I love, and the country I am privileged to lead, I call home.
“It's depressing that the Telegraph is giving oxygen to these dirt.”
Conservative MP Stephen Kerr, who sits on Holyrood's Standards Committee, previously claimed the First Minister was “very likely to have broken the[Scottish]ministerial code”.
image source, Distribution to Yusaf family
Mr. Yousaf's in-laws, Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakula, were visiting family in Gaza when the Hamas attack occurred.
The Scottish Government has said the funding has been allocated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, responding to an urgent call for emergency aid as more than one million Palestinians face displacement amid the escalating conflict in the Gaza Strip. Announced.
Yusaf's in-laws left the area on November 3, 2023.
According to the Telegraph article, Yousaf told authorities that he was due to meet senior UNRWA representatives in Edinburgh and that “an additional £250,000 should be announced to them”.
It is claimed that this money is contrary to their suggestion that the funds should be donated to UNICEF for water programmes.
The Scottish Government said the decision was taken following advice from officials.
“An indisputable humanitarian catastrophe”
“Let me be clear: the Scottish Government, like almost every Western government, provided funding to Gaza because of the undisputed humanitarian catastrophe that occurred there,” Yousaf said. Told.
UNRWA has since been at the center of controversy over Israeli accusations that its staff were involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the fighting.
Several countries, including the UK, announced they would suspend aid to relief agencies while investigations were carried out after the allegations emerged in January.
However, these accusations only became known weeks after the Scottish Government's funding announcement.
Stephen Kerr told the Telegraph that the funding decision suggested the first minister was “ready to bend the rules”.
He also said there was a “clear conflict of interest” in aid money provided to UNRWA.
Following Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, Israeli forces launched air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.
More than 30,800 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the region's Hamas-run health ministry.
The conflict is creating a growing humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations warning that famine in Gaza is “almost inevitable.”
