Staff comments were blocked on the Scottish Government’s in-house website about Holocaust Memorial Day in case they made ‘discriminatory’ remarks.
Amid a UK-wide rise in anti-Semitism, comments were banned on an article on the Saltire intranet system because of ‘the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza’.
Bosses were worried civil servants might make ‘inappropriate’, ‘discriminatory’ or offensive remarks ‘likely to result in distress and alarm’.
They were also concerned about breaches of civil service impartiality.
The Scottish Tories said it was ‘deeply depressing’ that SNP ministers couldn’t trust their staff when ‘now more than ever Scotland’s Jewish community needs reassurance’.
Holocaust Memorial Day is held in memory of the millions of Jewish people murdered across Europe by the Nazis during the Second World War
Officials feared Scottish Government civil servants would leave ‘inappropriate’ comments on the Holocaust Memorial Day page due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza
The Saltire article in January referred to remembering ‘the millions of people killed during the Holocaust and other genocides’, noting it was ‘79 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and 29 years since the genocide in Rwanda’.
It offered staff a chance to register for an event with Holocaust survivor and author Professor Peter Lantos, who was deported from Hungary to Bergen-Belsen aged five.
But it has now emerged that officials also felt obliged to block comments on a blog post on Israel/Gaza by the Government’s director-general economy Gregor Irwin last November.
The details emerged in a Freedom of Information response.
It showed senior staff planned to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, which is on January 27, with an article two days later on Saltire.
The staff-only system can be read by around 18,000 workers in the core Scottish Government, its executive agencies and quangos.
According to Government guidance, the Saltire comments facility is ‘turned on by default’ and only turned off before publication ‘in exceptional circumstances’.
However, with the Israel-Hamas conflict raging in Gaza after the October 7 terror attacks, the normal rules were set aside.
A January 25 email between officials said: ‘We are concerned that this article could attract comments or debate linked to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza which could be deemed as: * inappropriate and could provoke or offend others * discriminatory * likely to result in distress and alarm * not adhering to the value of impartiality set out in the Civil Service Code ‘On that basis, and subject to your agreement, we recommend that the comments facility is switched off for this article.’ The plan was signed off by the Government’s People Director Nicola Richards.
Scottish Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw, whose Eastwood constituency is home to Scotland’s largest Jewish community, said: ‘It’s deeply depressing to think that SNP ministers don’t seem able to trust their own Scottish Government staff not to make offensive comments in relation to the Holocaust.
‘The Holocaust was an incredibly dark chapter in human history and the Memorial Day is an important opportunity to remember its victims and try to ensure genocides will become a thing of the past. Surely every right-minded person should be able to agree on that?
‘Events in the Middle East have fuelled a rise in antisemitism here in recent months, and now more than ever Scotland’s Jewish community needs reassurance.
‘That means public figures – including some SNP politicians – being careful and even-handed in how they express themselves.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘It is standard practice for comments to be switched off in some circumstances. Doing so in this instance mitigated against the low risk of any comments breaching our moderation policy and ensured the focus remained on Holocaust Memorial Day.’
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