Pro‑Palestine protesters confront John Swinney at Edinburgh Fringe over Gaza

Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted an event at the Edinburgh Fringe which featured Scottish First Minister John Swinney on Saturday (2 August). The 61-year-old was on stage talking to comedian Susan Morrison at the Stand Comedy Club when demonstrators entered the venue and called on the First Minister to label the crisis in Gaza as a “genocide”. Protesters can be seen holding up placards which spell the word genocide out before they are ushered out of the venue by police. Following the event, Mr Swinney said: “It’s quite clear that there is a genocide in Palestine – it can’t be disputed. “I’ve expressed that and obviously it’s not reached all those individuals, but that’s my feeling.”