THE Scottish government was slammed today for arguing that it would be “anti-semitic” to make public information on SNP external affairs secretary Angus Robertson’s secret meeting with an Israeli ambassador. 

The claim came after investigative journalists at The Ferret had made a request under freedom of information (FOI) rules for any government correspondence on the meeting between Mr Robertson and Israel’s deputy ambassador to Britain Daniela Grudsky Ekstein last August.

That request was denied by the Scottish government, prompting The Ferret to launch an appeal to Information Commissioner David Hamilton.

Marking the latest in a string of FOI defeats for the Scottish government, Mr Hamilton ruled it had breached the law “by failing to identify, locate, retrieve and properly consider all of the information that fell within scope of the request and incorrectly withheld information.”

In his ruling, he revealed: “They [Scottish government officials] argued that ignoring Israel’s wishes in circumstances where other countries’ wishes have been respected, could be considered as an anti-semitic action under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition.”

That definition rests on Israel being treated as “any other democratic nation” — something Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) roundly dismissed, telling the Star today that they “do not accept that Israel warrants the designation that it is ‘a democratic nation’ since, even when it is not bombarding Gaza, it has total control over the movements of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Turning to the Scottish government’s behaviour, a JVL spokesperson said: ”We consider the use of the much discredited IHRA so-called definition of anti-semitism a particularly bizarre example of the cynical weaponising of anti-semitism for ulterior ends: here, to preserve state policymaking from democratic scrutiny.”

The Scottish government said: “We have received the Information Commissioner’s decision and are considering its terms.”