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Time to Let Vanunu Go Now
 international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
opinion/analysis
 Sunday July 06, 2008 12:47 by Mairead Maguire - Peace People
After 22 years, wondering if he will ever be free
Twelve years in solitary confinement, 6 more years in "ordinary" prison, four years since his release confined to the prison of Israel with inhuman conditions imposed, fighting another six months sentence for having spoken to journalists, will Mordechai Vanunu ever be a free man again? It's time to end this inhumanity and let Mordechai Vanunu go free at last. His fate may now lie in the hands of the Israeli people. I hope some Israeli voices will support him in his trial on 8 July.
In l986 a young Israeli man, called Mordechai Vanunu, followed his conscience and told the World that Israel had a nuclear weapons’ programme. He was convicted of espionage and treason and given an 18 years sentence. After serving this (12 of which were in solitary confinement) Mordechai Vanunu was released. In April 2004 about 80 people from around the world went to welcome him out of prison. Unbelievably, upon his release Mordechai was served with severe restrictions, which forbade him many basic civil liberties including his right to leave Israel, to speak to foreigners and foreign media and his travel within Israel restricted.
Each year around the 2lst April, he receives a letter from the Prime Minister renewing restrictions, and Mordechai starts, yet again, the process of appealing these restrictions through the Israeli court. Most recently he has been charged with breaking the restrictions, by talking to foreign media, and given a 6 months prison sentence which, when he appealed, was set as community service. On 8th July, 2008, he will appear before an Israeli court regarding this service and his case.
Four years since leaving Ashkelon prison, (and 22 years since he told about Israeli nuclear weapons) Mordechai Vanunu lives in modest accommodation in East Jerusalem, confined within a few miles radius, unable to earn a living, unaware of what to do to gain his freedom, unable to leave Israel, his life in danger, and left wondering if the Israeli Security will ever agree to let him leave the country. They say he is a threat to National Security, but everyone know that it is 22 years since Mordechai worked in Dimona Nuclear Plant, and the Nuclear industry has moved on. A well-known Israeli Nuclear scientist has testified that Mordechai can know nothing after such a long period, yet Israeli Security insists he is a risk to National Security, and Israeli Court and Government refuse to let him go thereby compounding an injustice, and breaking international laws.
Governments around the World have let Mordechai Vanunu down. They remain silent when they should be demanding the Israeli Government uphold it obligations under UNDHR, and allow Vanunu to leave. (Everyone has the right to leave any country including their own and to return to their country – Article 13 – 2 UNDHR).
So will Mordechai remain in Israel until he dies, or can anything be done to gain his freedom? I believe now Mordechai Vanunu’s freedom rests in the hands of the Israeli people themselves. Some years ago I asked a young Israeli friend why she thought Israel was holding Mordechai. She replied simply ‘because our Government does not trust its own people’ and she added ‘if the Israeli people would demand his release, it might be possible that he would be free to leave Israel and get on with his life’. I don’t know if she is right or wrong, I don’t know the Israeli mind or politics well enough to guess, but what I do know is that in the Jewish faith and tradition, there is a great deal of emphasis put on justice and doing what is right. I can now only hope and pray that on 8th July, 2008, some Israeli voices will be raised to call for justice for Mordechai Vanunu, who has paid the high price of 22 years of his life for following his conscience, and whether you hate or love Mordechai Vanunu, to be fair you have got to admit that he has suffered enough and it’s time to let him go NOW.
(MAIREAD MAGUIRE, NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE www.peacepeople.com)
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Comments (6 of 6)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6Sure, it's time he was released; is there an address to send messages of solidarity?
If Vanunu is no longer a threat to Israeli security as was pointed out by one of their chief nuclear physisists, then the only threat he poses is the possibility he may have, to expose the Israeli government for their corruption and inhumane treatment of one who offered his life in incarceration to highlight the fact that Israel had become a nuclear nation.
The political criminals opperate within the laws they create allowing their continnued corruption, as those who speak truth are criminalised by the same corrupt system.
Release Vanunu Now.
The new e-mail address for Mordechai is vanunuvmjc@gmail.com
His appeal is on this Tuesday July 8th.
The District Court of East Jerusalem heard Mordechai's appeal against the six month sentence today.
The sentence had been imposed on him for speaking to foreign journalists.
The three judges heard his lawyers arguments' with some openness and some sympathy but their verdict will come in September, says an e-mail from Mordechai
The court hearing was attended by many supporters and friends,from Israel ,Norway, peace activists, Christian PeacemakersTeam, his priest from the Redeemer church and journalists. His lawyers were,Avigdor Feldman, Michael Sfard,and Tomer,
Mordechai's next visit to the Courts will be to the Supreme Court where he will challenge the State's renewal of all the restrictions on his freedomwhich are now in their fifth year. This hearing will take place in the coming months.
Mordechai thanks all his supporters and continues to hope that he will one day be free again - after 22 years in all kinds of captivity.
During the sixties we sent millions of signatures on tens of thousands of petiions to the Canadian government and world governments for a political resolution of the necessity to dismantle the worlds' nuclear weapons. Upon recieving the two million signatures from Canadians to the Ottawa bourgeois government, they promptly put the names to the RCMP, and they put those names on a security list and suppressed the entire movermnet for nuclear disarmament. Then they acquired Bomarc Missiles with nuclear warheads as national security. They falsely claimed they thusly were protecting 'National Security". Pray tell me how in the world of the living is a weapon that Kills plants, animals, peoples, air, land, and water equally on use is national security. In fact the first man to order nuclear weapons on the missile tips was Hitler of Nazis Germany, and guess what folks, Werner von Braun who headed the missle programe in Nazis Germany and under Hitler could not then, because of the anti-fascist front fight at the time, but when captured by the U.S. Imperialists in 1945, he then was brought to America and hired to do just what Hitler had ordered him to do. He put nuclear weapons on the U.S. Imperialist missiles, the programe of which he was hired to head and paid to do. We in the nuclear disarmament movement throughout the world are still suffering for our resistence to aggressive Nuclear War Preparations by the worlds Imperialist Governments amd these nuclear weapons of mass destruction are still just as illegal and still the most dangerous weapons in the world. The fact is Vanunu is a hero and a comrade who resists all nuclear weapons and opposes their use for any reason. He is upholding the anti-fascist resistence and deserves to be set free from Israel which is holding him despite the anti-fascist traditions and rules of the Geneva Conventions of war. Workers of the world, unite. Set Vanunu free. The Peoples Republic of China agrees with a political meeting of all nuclear weapons countries to put one item on the agenda, the complete thorough total dismantling of all nuclear weapons. That is their political foreign policy and they intend to do so. They only acquired the knowledge of nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of dismantling them globally. That is the CPC's line in the world.
During the sixties we sent millions of signatures on tens of thousands of petitions to the Canadian government and world governments for a political resolution of the necessity to dismantle the worlds' nuclear weapons. Upon receiving the two million signatures from Canadians to the Ottawa bourgeois government, they promptly put the names to the RCMP, and they put those names on a security list and suppressed the entire movement for nuclear disarmament in Canada. Then they acquired Bomarc Missiles under PM Mike Pearson (Lib.) of Nobel Peace Prize fame???, with nuclear warheads as national security. They falsely claimed they thusly were protecting 'National Security". Pray tell me how in the world of the living is a weapon that Kills plants, animals, peoples, air, land, and water equally on use is national security. In fact the first man to order nuclear weapons on the missile tips was Hitler of Nazis Germany, and guess what folks, Werner von Braun who headed the missle programe in Nazis Germany and under Hitler could not then, because of the anti-fascist front fight at the time, but when captured by the U.S. Imperialists in 1945, he then was brought to America and hired to do just what Hitler had ordered him to do. He put nuclear weapons on the Inter-continental missiles, the programe of which he was hired to head and paid to do. We in the nuclear disarmament movement throughout the world are still suffering for our resistence to aggressive Nuclear War Preparations by the worlds Imperialist Governments, and these nuclear weapons of mass destruction are still just as illegal and still the most dangerous weapons in the world. The fact is Vanunu is a hero and a comrade, who resists all nuclear weapons, and opposes their use for any reason. He is upholding the anti-fascist resistence and deserves to be set free from Israel, which is holding him despite the anti-fascist traditions and rules of the Geneva Conventions of war. No cruel and unusual treatment of POW's. Workers of the world, unite. Set Vanunu free. The Peoples Republic of China agrees with a political meeting of all nuclear weapons countries to put one item on the agenda, the complete thorough total dismantling of all nuclear weapons. That is their political foreign policy and they intend to do so. They only acquired the knowledge of nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of dismantling them globally. That is the CPC's line in the world. Remember folks that the communist party is the only party that fully commits to abolishing war on earth forever. Peace equals disarmament.