SNP politician apologises 'unreservedly' for anti-Semitic tweet

A petition calling for Sandra White to 'resign for her racist tweet' has received almost 600 signatures

Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, has since deleted the tweet (Ken Jack/Demotix/Corbis)

A Scottish National Party politician has apologised "unreservedly" for sharing an anti-Semitic image on Twitter.

Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, retweeted the picture, which depicts six piglets, representing Britain, the US, Israel and terror groups Isis, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram, suckling from a large sow with the word "Rothschild" on it.

The cartoon shows six piglets, representing Britain, the US, Israel and terror groups Isis, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram, suckling from a large sow with the word "Rothschild" and an image of a bank with the Star of David on it (Twitter)

She has since deleted the tweet.

Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, apologised to the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCJC) for the "abhorrent" post, The Guardian reports.

Ephraim Borowski, director of SCJC, expressed concerns over the number of motions condemning Israel lodged at Holyrood, many of which were proposed or backed by Ms White.

The group said 62 of the 355 motions about foreign affairs in this parliamentary term had been about Israel, compared to 13 about Syria and 15 about Iraq.

A petition was started by Jonathan Manevitch, from Glasgow, for Ms White to "resign for her racist tweet".

It has almost 600 signatures at the time of writing.

Yesterday, Ms White apologised in a post on her website, saying she had not intended to retweet the picture.

"I would like to take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly for the offence that has been caused by my accidental retweeting of this offensive image which I too find repellent and offensive," she wrote.

"I had not intended to retweet this picture, and was horrified to learn that I had done so. As soon as this was brought to my attention, I deleted the tweet."

She went on to say she believed "Scots of all backgrounds are welcoming and inclusive and this is something I have always been proud of."