Scottish National Party MP Paul Monaghan deleted an antisemitic tweet and then apologized. Photo: Facebook.

A Scottish Member of Parliament apologized on Wednesday for posting an antisemitic message on Twitter accusing Jews of persecuting civilians in Gaza, the U.K. Jewish Chronicle reported.

Scottish National Party (SNP) MP Paul Monaghan, who deleted the offensive tweet when confronted by the newspaper, said he regretted having posted it. He also referred to remarks made earlier in the week by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to Glasgow’s Jewish community affirming that it is unacceptable to use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “some kind of justification for attacks on Jewish people.”

“I share the commitment set out earlier this week by the First Minister to the Jewish community,” Monaghan said. “I am sorry for my comments, they were certainly not intended to cause offense and I have removed them to ensure no further upset is caused.”

This was not the first time Monaghan stirred controversy over comments on Twitter. In April 2014, he accused Israel of embarking “on [a] genocide.” Earlier this year, he was criticized for allegedly supporting a pro-SNP racist, who himself posted offensive tweets, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

In 2013, Monaghan tweeted that Westminster “increasingly feels like early days of the Third Reich,” and last year he sent a message to an SNP supporter saying, “What the ‘British’ did to the people of India beggars belief. Easily on a par with Nazi atrocities.”

During Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in late 2012, a response to Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza, Monaghan tweeted: “Sad to see the proud Jewish race, so ashamedly persecuted by the Nazis, now persecuting the people of #Gaza. Are memories so short?”

According to the Jewish Chronicle, he posted the message again a day later, but changed the wording to say the “proud Jewish people” were “hideously persecuted.”