PRO-PALESTINIAN artists have condemned the Scottish government’s “unacceptable” response to their open letter calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

Signed by over 800 cultural workers and sent to MSPs, including First Minister John Swinney and members of his government, in the summer, the letter from Art Workers for Palestine Scotland (AW4PS) called for the endorsement of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

It called for public arts bodies such as the national galleries and the Scottish Ballet to refuse funding from companies such as Baillie Gifford and Barclays, which the group had identified as profiting from Israel’s apartheid regime.

SNP Culture Secretary Angus Robertson — himself singled out in the letter over his unminuted “secretive meetings” with Israel’s deputy ambassador to Britain — responded on behalf of the Scottish government, claiming: “Such disinvestment campaigns, regardless of their primary intent, can place immediate and existential financial pressures on our invaluable cultural organisations and may discourage future individual and corporate giving to the culture sector in Scotland.”

The campaigners hit back, saying: “AW4PS recognises that Scotland does not control foreign policy. 

“But Scotland does control its cultural relationships, public procurement, divestment decisions and its ability to take principled stances, just as it has done in previous international struggles, including apartheid South Africa.

“We expect a government that claims to champion culture, equality and human rights to respond with integrity, not to hide behind bureaucratic distance and reheated political positioning.

“The arts sector has spoken clearly: we do not want our labour, our institutions or our public money used to normalise or support a state committing mass atrocities. 

“Angus Robertson’s response fails to meet even the minimum moral and political expectations of the people he is meant to represent.”