John Swinney event at Edinburgh Book Festival cut short by pro-Palestine protestor

The closing five minutes were curtailed when the woman stood up and repeatedly attacked the Scottish Government for its engagement with Israel.

It comes after Angus Robertson, the SNP external affairs secretary, apologised for meeting with Israel’s deputy ambassador Daniela Grudsky.

Mr Swinney was appearing at the festival alongside Mark Drakeford, the former Labour first minister of Wales, to discuss 25 years of devolution.

But in the closing minutes, when host Laura Maxwell was taking questions from the audience, a woman stood up and began haranguing the SNP leader.

She accused Mr Swinney’s party of “mingling with deputy genocidal ambassadors” and “legitimising a genocidal apartheid state who commit war crimes”. She added: “What is the magic number for a genocide to be called a genocide?”

Ms Maxwell, a BBC journalist, tried unsuccessfully to get the woman to sit down, insisting she had made her point and the event was running out of time.

Angry members of the audience also told her to sit down and demanded she be asked to leave. “Is your voice the only voice?” one asked. The event had to finish with no more questions.

Mr Robertson has faced significant internal party criticism over his meeting with the Israeli diplomat. He previously said he believed it was “right” to communicate the Scottish Government’s opposition to the conflict in Gaza.

However, he said issues which did not relate to the war were raised by Ms Grudsky, including energy, tourism and economic co-operation. Mr Robertson said: “That meeting was not an appropriate space or time for that meeting to take place.”

The Scottish Government has suspended any further meetings with the Israeli government until peace progress has been made in the conflict with Hamas.