Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

Glasgow City Councils follows the good example of its University students and supports Vanunu.  Well done Glasgow and well done the Green Party!  The following by Elham Asaad Buaras.

Despite opposition from a regional Zionist group, Glasgow City Council has voted in favour of a motion supporting the Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu. Critics had argued that the Scottish city was wrong to debate “what another country has done.”
The Glasgow motion comes amidst the backdrop of the revelation that Tony Blair’s Government attempted to prevent a reference to Israel contained in the “dodgy dossier” from being published. Vanunu was convicted in Israel in 1988 of publishing state secrets on Israel’s nuclear industry. Vanunu completed his sentence but has since been sentenced to a further six months after breaking an order banning him from speaking to foreign journalists.
The motion, debated at a Council meeting on February 21, was raised by Scottish Green Party councillor Martha Wardrop.
The passing of the motion now means the Council will support campaigns for the nuclear whistle-blower’s release and support him in his role as rector of Glasgow University.

Stanley Grossman of the Scottish Friends of Israel spearheaded the opposition to the motion, writing to every councillor in protest. “I have had about half a dozen replies from councillors who said they did not know the full story and that they were going to vote against it. I also had a couple of very nasty replies,” Grossman told The Jewish Chronicle. “This was designed to put Mordechai Vanunu back in the public eye. We believe the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) was behind this.”
The SPSC did not hide their support for Vanunu, and called the Scottish Friends of Israel accusation of co-ordinating the campaign a “back-handed compliment”. In a statement to The Muslim News, SPSC campaigners said that their “input to the Green Party motion was simply to motivate a few constituents to approach their Councillor to raise the issue. We are proud to have played a role in each of these initiatives, and to be the only campaign to have played a role in all of them.”
Scottish Representative Council President, Philip Mendelsohn, said, “It was unfortunate that a local authority thought that it was a relevant thing for them to debate what another country has done through its judicial process. It was totally inappropriate. “There are plenty of other people in jail all over the world for similar offences, yet they don’t make a big issue out of it. It happens only with Israel.”
Chair of SPSC, Mick Napier, told The Muslim News that Mendelsohn’s sentiment was “a sign of the attitude they would take to other issues of free speech if they had the power; blind to the fact that Glasgow boasts a Mandela Square in the heart of the city centre.”
Wardrop rebutted both Mendelsohn’s and Grossman’s argument, telling The Muslim News, “The Council has the right to debate anything it chooses to debate, regardless of whether a foreign government would wish us to or not. Second, the treatment meted out Mr Vanunu is of great interest to the students of Glasgow University, many of whom I represent, who decided they wished him to represent them as their Rector but who have been denied his presence in Glasgow by the continued action against him by the Israeli Government
“Even if that prison term were justified, it is clear that he presents no threat to the state of Israel and that across the political spectrum there is growing support for the restrictions placed on him since being released from prison in 2004 to be lifted.” A document released in February has revealed that the Foreign Office fought to keep secret any mention of Israel in the first draft of the controversial Iraq war dossier, over fears it may damage relations with Israel.
The reference was reportedly written in the margin by an unknown person commenting on the opening paragraph of the draft dossier. It appeared beside the claim that “no other country (aside from Iraq) has flouted the United Nations’ authority so brazenly in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.”
Israel is the Middle East’s sole nuclear power with an estimated 200 warheads.
The head of the Foreign Office’s Arab, Israel and North Africa group, Neil Wigan, told the Information Tribunal, “Unfortunately, there is perception already in Israel that parts of the FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] are prejudiced against the country.”
The Israel reference in the draft dossier “would therefore confirm this pre-existing suspicion and would increase the damage,” he added.
The Foreign Office had no objections, however, to references to the US and Germany as countries which had twice launched wars of aggression against neighbours, nor to referring to Japan in relation to the use of chemical weapons