Humza Yousaf blasts Michael Gove for saying IDF should get Nobel Peace Prize
Humza Yousaf has blasted Michael Gove for saying the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) should receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
The former first minister confronted the Scots-born former Tory minister during an event at Glasgow University on Tuesday evening.
Glasgow Pollok MSP Yousaf said he "hopes to God I get to see the day" that the IDF and Israeli politicians are tried for war crimes at the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands.
The Israeli military has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza in the last 15 months. Israel invaded the territory after Hamas killed over 1,000 Israelis in an attack on October 7, 2023.
Yousaf said at the event: "I don't care what side of the debates or geopolitics you're on, but I want you to just humanise it for a minute. I want you to picture your child, your son, your daughter, your grandchild, your niece, your nephew.
"I want you to picture them as they were when they were two years old. I want you to picture the family dinner that you're having. Enjoying the beautiful joy that a two-year-old brings.
READ MORE: Child victims of Glasgow paedophile sex gang let down by 'institutional failures'
READ MORE: Only one Scottish Labour MP votes for SNP Commons bill to compensate Waspi women
"And I just want you to imagine what it must have felt like for the grandparents of Laila Al-Khatib when a bullet burst through the window and smashed into her skull and she lay there bleeding to death, and they were helpless. Just think about how you would feel in that moment.
"Every hospital in Gaza destroyed or damaged. Every school damaged or destroyed. UN facilities bombed. Refugee camps bombed. Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Nothing including the horrific attacks of October 7 justify such devastation, such death, and the mass killing of innocent civilians.
"So no, the IDF, the military leaders, the political leaders of Israel, they don't deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. They deserve to be tried in the Hague. And I hope to God I get to see the day that they're held to account for the war crimes that they've committed."
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here