A SCOTTISH veteran has returned a war medal in disgust over the UK Government’s support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Stuart Russell was decorated for his service in the Iraq War but has handed the award back in protest.
The 49-year-old father and grandfather of one, handed in the medal to his local MSP in central Edinburgh Angus Robertson.
The SNP MSP facilitated its return to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) who will hold onto it in case Russell changes his mind.
The veteran, who was in the army from 1999 to 2005, said Britain’s support for Israel moved him to take a stand.
He said: “I just think it’s wrong.”
In a letter to Russell from this June which confirmed the medal had been sent to the UK Government, Robertson (above) said the medal had been received by the Earl of Minto, then a minister in the MoD.
It will be held for a total of 18 months from receipt and then destroyed.
In a letter from the Earl of Minto to Robertson shared with this paper, the former minister said he recognised Russell’s desire to “make a stand against any form of violence and conflict”.
He added: “The Government recognises that there may, regrettably, be times when veterans and Service personnel feel strongly enough about an issue it motivates them to return their medals in protest.
"I can assure you that it has never been the Government's intention to cause our ex-service personnel, to whom we will always be indebted, such concern that would bring them to surrender their treasured awards.”
Russell (above) told the Sunday National he had “never really liked the medal” because he had regarded the Iraq War as an “illegal attack” and recalled “a lot of bullying” he witnessed during his years of service.
He joined the army at age 25 on the encouragement of a friend and said his older brother had joined a few years previously.
Russell said: “There was just nothing in the area, Dunfermline, work-wise. One of my best friends that lived up my street, he’d been in the army for a few years and every time he was home, he’d try and recruit me.”
Russell's six-year career as a private in the Black Watch left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said, which had left him unable to work since he was discharged.
He said he had received help from veterans organisations in Edinburgh but that services were being changed as their funding was being “cut right back”.
The Sunday National today reveals that a forthcoming report from the British Palestine Committee will set out how the UK’s involvement with Israel’s assault on Gaza goes “much deeper” than is commonly thought.
The report sets out how RAF Akrotiri, a British military base in Cyprus, has been used to funnel weapons into Israel and raises suggestions that UK intelligence gathered from planes flying out of the Mediterranean island has been used in hostage rescue missions by Israel.
A recent mission, which rescued four Israeli hostages captured by Hamas on October 7, resulted in the deaths of 274 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Britain’s partial arms embargo on Israel also includes the significant caveat that it remains supplied with UK-made parts for F-35 jets, believed to have been used in deadly attacks on civilians.
