Palestine Protestors Oppose Glasgow Life’s Hosting of Far Right Group

By Jamie O’Rourke

Hundreds of Pro-Palestine activists gathered outside the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Sunday to protest the venue’s hosting of the group Glasgow Friends of Israel, who were celebrating their tenth anniversary. Two protests were held at the steps, one organised by Art Workers for Palestine and the other later protest by Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee: Scottish Socialist Party activists attended both, continuing the Party’s constant and unfailing support of the Palestinian people.

Glasgow Friends of Israel is an organisation which denies any wrongdoing on the part of the Israeli regime. On their X account, the group has referred to Palestinians as “Jew-hating, murderous savages”, and has stated that “Palestine does not exist”. Amongst the conference attendees were GFI founder and former IDF soldier Sammy Stein, evangelical TV host Simon Barrett, and Scottish Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw.

This event – the latest in a long line of controversies for Glasgow Life – displays the importance of allowing the people of Glasgow and cultural workers to have control over Glasgow’s spaces. A charity organisation which is run like a business cannot be relied upon to make ethical decisions regarding Glasgow’s cultural life, and their behaviour proves that they cannot be trusted to treat their workers fairly.

A petition calling on Glasgow Life to cancel the event gained traction online, attracting over 3500 signatures, but the event went ahead as planned. The event was kept under wraps by Glasgow Life for several months. The organisation defended its decision by pointing out that they allowed a charity concert for Gaza to take place at the Concert Hall in 2024, equating a fundraising event for victims of famine and genocide with a hate-filled anti-Palestinian conference.

Glasgow Life is a charity which is regarded by many as an arm of Glasgow City Council. It has previously come under fire from the Palestine movement for banning keffiyehs from some public events and preventing the Glasgow International Festival of Art from supporting a cultural boycott of Israel. The charity has also been subject to a collective grievance from trade unions in 2021 over attempts to cut over 500 jobs, and has been criticised for their unfair treatment of employees.

Policing of the protest was heavy handed, with GGEC organiser Mick Napier being arrested for undisclosed reasons. Napier was released around an hour after his arrest, with police on the scene claiming the arrest was “a mistake”. Napier’s arrest and the manhandling of activists at a peaceful protest was a tactical error on the part of police Scotland, drawing the attention – and in some cases the ire – of passers-by. One man who was not an attendee of the protest commented as he passed “They [the police] always escalate things, they shouldn’t be pushing people about like that. They make trouble.”

The Scottish Socialist Party has stood with the Palestinian people against genocide and colonialism throughout our existence, and this solidarity will continue: SSP Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election candidate Collette Bradley has unashamedly spoken out for Palestine before and during the campaign. The SSP also calls for more democracy and transparency in the arts, preventing public bodies from platforming far right, racist, and hateful organisations.