BRITAIN must ban Israeli military flights from UK airspace, the Scottish Greens have said.
The UK Government is facing calls to bar Israeli Air Force (IAF) planes from flying over Britain – and from landing at British airports.
It comes after we revealed state-owned Prestwick Airport had cut off access to the IAF, after it used the airport in November last year.
The Scottish Government said Prestwick would do no further business with the Israeli military and on Monday night the airport confirmed it did not expect future requests from the IAF.
Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland, Greens MSP Ross Greer said: “The Scottish Greens would certainly urge the UK Government to ban all Israeli military flights – not just from UK airports – but from UK airspace entirely.”
READ MORE: Prestwick Airport 'cuts off Israeli Air Force access' after backlash
Asked about whether the airport would keep its Israeli military ban if it were to be privatised, Greer (below) said: “Once the airport is sold, it would be outwith the powers of the Scottish Government. So aviation in general, civil aviation airspace that’s reserved to the UK Government and UK Parliament.
“But they would absolutely have the power to ban Israeli military aircraft from using any airport in the UK, regardless of who owns it.
“Right now the Scottish Government has, I believe, a degree of power over that as the ultimate owner of the airport.”
But he added that he believed ministers should have intervened sooner to prevent more Israeli military planes using Prestwick Airport.
READ MORE: How The National kept up pressure over Israeli flight at Prestwick Airport
He said: “The Greens have been consistent in saying, yes Scottish Government ministers should’ve been applying much higher standards of human rights in the first place and not just in relation to the Israeli military, the American military has used Prestwick Airport as a staging base for decades through various campaigns where they’ve certainly been committing war crimes against innocent people across the world.
“But right now, there is a genocide going on, we cannot emphasise this enough, Israel has killed at least 30,000 civilians in Gaza. The likelihood is far, far, more. We shouldn’t be complicit in that.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said: “The diplomatic flight clearance policy, which applies to all state-operated flights, is a robust process. Permissions to utilise UK air bases is considered on a case-by-case basis.
"For operational security reasons, we do not offer comment or information relating to foreign nations’ military aircraft movements.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here