On July 2, 2007 the whistle blower of Israel’s WMD Program, who served 18 years in jail and the last three under house arrest was sentenced to six more months behind bars for the interviews he gave to foreign media in 2004.
Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court said in its ruling that it would hold off on jailing Vanunu to allow him to appeal. Vanunu’s lawyers were not immediately available for comment. Convicted by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court in April of violating the ban by speaking to foreign media, Vanunu, 52, said: “All I want is to be free, to leave the country.” http://in.today.reuters.com/news/
Annually, for the last twenty years Mordechai Vanunu has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. This year, Vanunu was nominated by Bishop Desmond Tutu, who received the Nobel Prize in 1984, for his courageous and fearless opposition against the South African apartheid system.
On April 30, 2007 , in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, Mordechai Vanunu was convicted on 14 [out of 21] counts of violating a court order prohibiting him from speaking to foreign journalists in 2004.
Vanunu was also convicted for traveling the four miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem when he hoped to attend Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity, his first Christmas after being released from 18 years in jail [most of it in solitary] on April 21, 2004.
Instead of Christmas Mass, Vanunu spent the night in jail and charged with attempting to flee Israel. Vanunu also has no passport and has been held under the draconian 1945 British Mandate State of Emergency Regulations, which forbids him from leaving Israel and speaking to media and foreigners, these last three years since his release.
Following the verdict, Vanunu pointed out, “Perhaps I should turn to the Queen or Tony Blair for justice…All that I want is to be free, to leave the country.” http://www.serve.com/vanunu/20070430haaretz.html
Israel’s statehood was contingent upon its upholding of the UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, Article 19 affirms:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Vanunu’s historic freedom of speech trial began on January 25, 2006 and concluded on February 2, 2007. The court brought 21 charges against him for giving interviews to foreign media in 2004: but the professional paid media has been missing in action during this historic trial.
Back in 1986, when Vanunu was only a low tech worker in Israel’s WMD facility, he easily obtained the keys to the restricted areas after they had been carelessly left in the shower room. Vanunu was able to shoot two rolls of film in the underground WMD facility without detection that proved to the world that Israel was nuclear in 1986.
Instead of Israel being grateful for the alert to their inadequate security system in the nuclear reactor facility, they kidnapped and locked Vanunu up for 18 years, most all of it in solitary. Vanunu has not set foot into the Dimona in over 21 years and International Inspectors never have.
On April 21, 2004, Vanunu was released from Ashkelon Prison, but has lived under the draconian 1945 British Mandate State of Emergency Regulations, which forbids him from leaving Israel and speaking to media and foreigners.
This civilian journalist met Vanunu for the first time in June 2005, learned about his childhood and why and how he became a Christian just a few weeks before being clubbed, drugged and kidnapped by the Mossad then undergoing a closed door trial.
During my March 2006 interview with Vanunu, he told me,”This administration tells me I am not allowed to speak to foreigners, the Media, and the world. But I do because that is how I prove my true humanity to the world.”
Although ‘free’ for the last three years, “Vanunu has suffered a spate of verbal attacks and threats as a result of his activism from Zionists, both Jewish and Christian. However, given the fact that Israel’s nuclear capability is no longer a secret, he feels that the attacks are personal in nature and tied to the fact that he “abandoned the tribe” by converting to Christianity.”
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/ …
In May 2006, Vanunu informed American Free Press correspondent, Mark Glenn, “that this was something that was a common theme during his prison term, where he would receive regular visits from Shin Bet and Mossad agents who would dangle the bait of parole in front of him if he would just renounce his conversion and “return to the fold.” His comments concerning his conversion reveal why “interested parties” might engage in a program of vindictiveness against him:
“In the same way that Jesus criticized Judaism 2,000 years ago, I was unwilling to accept what they teach. The Jews believe that there is only one Chosen People of God and preach their superiority…There are 6 billion people around the world, all equal, all part of the human race. There is no such thing as a super race.
“We should all respect and love each other, and that was the beginning of my rejecting Judaism and accepting the teachings of Jesus Christ and of accepting humanity… the Jews came to Palestine in the name of their god and took this land and expelled the people and gave them hard, cruel, barbaric lives for the last 60 years. This way of thinking, this faith, cannot exist within this new age, and it was this that also led me to expose Israel’s nuclear secrets.” http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/ …
In June 2005 and March 2006, Vanunu informed this civilian journalist:
“The Shen Beet, you know like the FBI and the Mossad, like your CIA were watching me constantly. They tortured me by keeping a light on in my cell constantly for two years. They told me it was because they were afraid I would commit suicide, and the oppressive camera was for my safety. They recruited the guards and other prisoners to irritate me. They would deprive me of sleep by making loud noises near my cell all night long.
“The Israelis have 200 atomic weapons and they accuse the Palestinians and Muslims of terrorism. The Dimona is 46 years old; reactors last 25 to 30 years. The Dimona has never been inspected and Israel has never signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty but all the Arab states have.”
“Twenty years ago when I worked there they only produced when the air was blowing towards Jordan ten miles away. No one knows what is happening now. The world needs to wake up and see the real terrorism is the occupation and the Palestinians have lived under that terror regime for 40 years.
“It’s very sad that Hillary Clinton went to the Jewish Wailing Wall and forgot the real crying wall is the Palestinian wall; the apartheid wall, the wall is not for defense, but to keep this conflict permanent.
“Israel is only a democracy if you are a Jew.”