The arts organisation behind a controversial Palestine-themed event titled 'From the Rivers to the Seas' has received almost £1million from taxpayers.
Arika, a not-for-profit community interest company, has been awarded £911,950 under SNP quango Creative Scotland's multi-year funding programme for 2025-28.
It is organising an event next week at Tramway, a Glasgow arts venue which is also funded by Creative Scotland and run by council-funded arm's-length body Glasgow Life.
'From the rivers to the seas' is a slight variation of the phrase 'from the river to the sea' which critics say advocates the end of the Israeli state.
Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said: 'The SNP's arts quango might want to wash its hands of this show with its anti-Semitic title.
'But Creative Scotland has bankrolled them with almost a million pounds of taxpayers' cash so they must bear some responsibility and accountability. John Swinney's SNP government also can't dodge its role in diverting vast sums of public money being spent on highly questionable projects like this.'
Art organisation Arika were awarded £911,950 by the Creative Scotland quango
As the Mail reported earlier this week, Tramway was accused of anti-Semitism for hosting 'Episode 12: From the Rivers to the Sea'.
Adverts with the pluralised version of the phrase have appeared ahead of a five-day programme discussing Israeli 'genocide' in Gaza.
Described by organisers as seeking to 'pluralise Palestine to unsettle colonialism everywhere' the event includes artists, academics, activists and writers discussing Palestine, colonialism, abolitionism and social justice.
Elliot Davis, former chairman of the Judeo-Christian Alliance, said 'from the rivers to the seas' was 'virulent hate speech as it calls for the eradication of the tiny Jewish state of Israel'.
He said: 'It's a sad day for Scotland that we are governed by a political party, the SNP, which literally supports and funds Jew-hate racism via Creative Scotland.'
Creative Scotland insisted it does not try to 'influence' the content of 'programming decisions'.
A spokesman said: 'We support Arika through our multi-year funding programme, which provides stable funding over three years for the operations and creative programmes of 262 cultural organisations across Scotland.'
A spokesman for Glasgow Life said it 'is committed to maintaining its political neutrality' and 'noted that the themes are already being discussed daily around the world'.
Arika said the festival reflected solidarity with Palestinians in the midst of 'an ongoing genocide'.
The Scottish Government repeated Creative Scotland's claim that the quango 'has no role in the programming decisions made by the organisations that it funds'.
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