Letter to Linda Fabiani & Alex Salmond: Mordechai Vanunu
8 November 2007
Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister
Dear First Minister
Fifty-one MSPs from all parties in the Scottish Parliament have already signed a motion calling for Mordechai Vanunu's freedom, a motion identical to that which you supported in Westminster. Indeed, it was your open support for Mordechai Vanunu that inspired many of us to carry out the lobbying campaign that has brought us close to an absolute majority of MSPs supporting this motion. I am confident that we will secure an outright Parliamentary majority in due course, 65 MSPs or over, but I am writing to Linda Fabiani, Scotland’s Minister for External Affairs, and to yourself to appeal to you to anticipate this situation and to issue on behalf of the Scottish government a statement of support for Glasgow University’s elected Rector, anti-nuclear weapons campaigner, and champion of Palestinian human rights, Mordechai Vanunu before he appears in an Israeli court next Tuesday.
You will be adding the support of the Scottish Government to the declarations of support by Scotland’s other University Rectors and the leaders of the country’s main Christian denominations.
On Tuesday, November 13, Vanunu will appeal his sentence of six months for ‘speaking to foreigners’. These ‘foreigners’ include the students of one of Scotland’s major universities as well as many individual Scots who are in agreement with the Scottish Government’s opposition to nuclear weapons of mass destruction and who are in support of Palestinian human rights.
In view of the limited time before next Tuesday, I urge you to act with haste, commitment to human rights, and compassion and admiration for a man who, for our common beliefs, has sacrificed so much – kidnapping from a European capital, eighteen years incarceration in an Israeli prison, including almost twelve in the most cruel solitary confinement, and who remains the elected representative of thousands of Scottish students.
Yours sincerely
Mick Napier
Chair, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
c/o Peace & Justice Centre
2 Princes Street
Edinburgh EH2 4BJ
www.scottishpsc.org.uk
8 November 2007
Linda Fabiani, Scottish Minister for External Affairs
Dear Linda
Fifty-one MSPs from all parties in the Scottish Parliament have already signed a motion calling for Mordechai Vanunu's freedom: First Minister Alex Salmond has signed the parallel motion in Westminster. I am confident that we will secure an outright Parliamentary majority for this motion, 65 MSPs or over, but I am writing to appeal to you and to First Minister, Alex Salmond, to anticipate this situation and to issue on behalf of the Scottish government a statement of support for Glasgow University’s elected Rector, anti-nuclear weapons campaigner, and champion of Palestinian human rights, Mordechai Vanunu before he appears in an Israeli court next Tuesday.
You will be adding the support of the Scottish Government to the declarations of support by Scotland’s other University Rectors and the leaders of the country’s main Christian denominations .
On Tuesday, November 13, Vanunu will appeal his sentence of six months for ‘speaking to foreigners’. These ‘foreigners’ include the students of one of Scotland’s major universities as well as many individual Scots who are in agreement with the Scottish Government’s opposition to nuclear weapons of mass destruction and who are in support of Palestinian human rights.
In view of the limited time before next Tuesday, I urge you to act with haste, commitment to human rights, and compassion and admiration for a man who, for our common beliefs, has sacrificed so much – kidnapping from a European capital, eighteen years incarceration in an Israeli prison, including almost twelve in the most cruel solitary confinement, and who remains the elected representative of thousands of Scottish students.
Yours sincerely
Mick Napier
Chair, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
c/o Peace & Justice Centre
2 Princes Street
Edinburgh EH2 4BJ
www.scottishpsc.org.uk