GLASGOW Friends of Israel have distanced themselves from a far-right activist with links to one of Scotland’s most notorious holocaust deniers.
Last week Max Dunbar was photographed helping out at a street stall run by the group.
He was formerly the treasurer of the BNP in Scotland, and is the currently filling the same role for the Britannica party. He is also a regular at events organised by A Force For Good, run by Alistair McConnachie, a former Ukip candidate who believes there is no evidence the Nazis used gas chambers to murder Jewish people. Pictures of Dunbar and Sammy Stein, the deputy chair of the Confederation of Friends of Israel, Scotland, were posted online by the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.
Glasgow Friends of Israel took to twitter to reject SPSC claims they were in “active cooperation” with Dunbar and the far-right.
“Based on information which has come to light in the past few hours, GFI and CFIS wish to make clear that we dissociate ourselves from Max Dunbar. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us to identify and resolve this issue,” the group said.
READ MORE: Former BNP member pictured working with Scotland in Union
In an interview with the Ferret, Stein said: “Within a few hours of receiving information about his activities, we publicly announced that our group has disassociated itself from him.”
He added that Dunbar had “not attended any of our meetings and he has never been a member of our group.
“Our group has never received any donated money from Mr Dunbar, Britannica, or the British National Party and we have never received any services from any of them. Just to be very clear indeed, our group has never had any association with any far right groups and within hours of finding out about Mr Dunbar, our group disassociated itself from him.”
Dunbar will be familiar to readers of The National.
Last year we revealed that he had been taking part in Scotland in Union events. He was banned by the group.
A picture on the group’s Facebook page, taken in February 2016 showed Dunbar outside Glasgow Central Station handing out Scotland in Union leaflets.
According to Hope Not Hate, Britannica is “essentially the core of the BNP Glasgow branch under a new name”. They stood four candidates in Glasgow Council elections in 2012.
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