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ON THE HOLIDAY OF FREEDOM - FREEDOM FOR MORDECHAI VANUNU!
On April 17, dozens of Israeli peace, human right and anti-nuclear activists demonstrated at Hashikma Prison in Ashkelon, Israel, demanding the immediate release of prisoner of conscience Mordechai Vanunu. Vanunu (43) has served nearly 12 years of an 18-year sentence, of which he spent 11.5 years in solitary confinement. Vanunu's only crime was confirming to the world that Israel had full nuclear capability and was producing nuclear weapons - information that was kept secret from the citizens of Israel and the rest of the world. To this day, Israel's nuclear installations remain unsupervised and uninspected by any international or independent authority. The Israeli Committee for Mordechai Vanunu and for a Middle East Free of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons, called for the demonstration at Ashkelon Prison on the last day of Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating freedom from slavery. "Mordechai Vanunu acted to free the citizens of Israel from enslavement through disinformation and concealment; he sought to free this nation and the rest of the world from the threat of nuclear weapons. The information that he revealed should have been made public and the real crime was that of the Israeli governments - producing and stockpiling nuclear weapons without informing the public and without public consent," stated a spokesperson for the committee. Braving the tail-end of the worst heat wave in 35 years, the participants in the demonstration ranged from veteran Vanunu supporters in their 90's, who had travelled from Haifa in the north, to a 7 year-old child who carried a placard: "Vanunu did something very good for the world". Participants chanted "Free Vanunu - Dismantle the Bombs"; "Develop the City of Dimona - Not the Reactor"; "Peace Yes - Nukes No". Some placards reflected the spirit of Passover - "11.5 years in solitary - Dayenu ("It is enough") and others praised Vanunu's courageous action: "Vanunu is the eyes of the people" and "Vanunu is my spy". After standing peacefully in front of the prison for one hour, a group of demonstrators hoisted a huge cloth banner reading "Free Mordechai Vanunu," that was lifted in the air with helium baloons, in the hope that Mordechai would see the message from inside the prison walls. Young demonstrators, who were children when Vanunu was first imprisoned, sang a song they composed in his honor. Passersby waved at the demonstrators and there were no hostile reactions, which used to be common. Several policemen who monitored the demonstration did not intervene, even when the demonstrators crossed the road to stand directly in front of the prison gates, as close as they were allowed. Mordechai Vanunu will appear before a parole board on April 22, having completing two-thirds of his sentence and being eligible for time off for good behavior. His supporters maintain, that the lengthy solitary confinement to which Vanunu was subjected, constituted harsher punishment than his original sentence by the court, and therefore he should be unconditionally released. Furthermore, now that Vanunu is allowed contact with other prisoners and with his adoptive parents, there can be no claim that he will leak "secrets" if he is released.
The Committee also released for publication a letter that it sent to U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan on April 6 [follows]. The Committee requested
Annan's intervention for the release of Mordechai Vanunu and U.N.
protection for nuclear whistleblowers anywhere around the world."Mr. Vanunu
and others like him deserve U.N. protection for serving the interests of
international peace and upholding the principles of the International
Non-Proliferation Treaty," the letter read.
Greetings,
The Israeli Committee for Mordechai Vanunu |
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ISRAELI ANTI-NUCLEAR ACTIVISTS APPEAL TO KOFI ANNAN: "PROTECT NUCLEAR WHISTLEBLOWERS - DEMAND RELEASE OF VANUNU" The following is the text of the letter sent by the The Israeli Committee for Mordechai Vanunu and for a Middle East Free of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, on April 6, 1998.
Esteemed Secretary General Annan, Noting your dedicated activity to prevent war in our region, we are appealing to you to make a dramatic step towards enforcing international supervision and inspection of nuclear installations, by providing U.N. protection to any individuals in any country, who expose uninspected or unsupervised nuclear installations. This would mean, safeguarding the life and liberty of such individuals who in good faith publicly provide information concerning the existence, manufacture, stockpiling and development of mass destruction weapons, by declaring such individuals to be under U.N. protection, and if necessary, by providing them with travel documents or physical protection, if they are threatened by the government involved in the exposed activities. As you may know, Israeli citizen Mordechai Vanunu is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence, after he exposed Israel's nuclear arsenal to the British Sunday Times in 1986. Mr. Vanunu was illegally kidnapped in Italy, drugged and forcibly returned to Israel, where he was tried in proceedings that remain secret to this day, and was kept in solitary confinement for more than eleven years. The information that Mr. Vanunu revealed, which had been kept secret both from the citizens of Israel and from the rest of the world, concerned the nuclear plant in Dimona, Israel, which has remained unsupervised and uninspected since its construction 40 years ago. Mr. Vanunu acted as a concerned citizen and provided correct, reliable details which otherwise would have remained concealed to this day. Even after his courageous act, Israeli citizens and the world remain uninformed about the health and environmental risks that this plant and others in Israel pose; about the manner and location of disposing of nuclear waste products; and about the development and manufacture of nuclear weapons in Israel after 1986. We believe, that Mr. Vanunu and others like him deserve U.N. protection for serving the interests of international peace and upholding the principles of the International Non-Proliferation Treaty. We maintain that nuclear whistleblowers should not suffer the loss of liberty and human rights because they act to protect humanity from the danger of mass destruction weapons. We are convinced, that when governments know that concerned citizens who possess information about uninspected nuclear weapons plants will be able to publicize this information, secure in the knowledge that they will be protected by the international community, they may see no use in concealing this information from their own citizens and from the world. Since so recently the issue inspecting mass destruction weapons sites nearly caused a war in this region, in which millions of innocent people might have been harmed, it seems to us that protecting "citizen inspectors" who assist in exposing secret weapons installations would be a timely, peaceful and encouraging step.
We respectfully urge you to announce U.N. protection for nuclear
whistleblowers, and to insist on the immediate release of Mordechai Vanunu,
who acted as an inspector for the people of Israel, of the region and of
the world.
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"YOU'RE THE ONES WHO NEED SUPPORT, NOT ME" Three months ago Mordechai Vanunu wrote a letter from prison to several Israelis who have been active for him for years. "The time has come to write in Hebrew," he wrote at the beginning of the letter, after years during which he insisted on corresponding only in English with intellectuals, scientists, parliament members and anti-nuclear activists around the world. Vanunu, it appears, has become an international hero in the course of his lengthy solitary confinement in the Israeli prison, without arousing similar interest in the Israeli public. This year, after he was one of the three final candidates for the Nobel peace prize, the interest in his fate has increased even further. For example, the Australian Senate recently decided to demand his release from Israel, and President Ezer Weitzman will soon be presented with a petition signed by 12,000 people asking him to pardon Vanunu. The signators include the mayor of Hiroshima, Bishop Desmond Tutu, physicists who assisted in developing the American atom bomb, British playwrite Harold Pinter, musician Sir Colin Davis, violinist Yehudi Menuchin, actors Tom Conti and Ed Asner and singer Phil Collins. Previously the band Pink Floyd dedicated a concert in London to Vanunu. And 50 members of the Swedish parliament signed the petition, as well as 21 members of the European Parliament. In many countries activity against nuclear weapons is considered to be part of the political agenda, and Vanunu's action is not seen as treason, but at the most sidestepping the censorship to make an exposure that would shock the world and the Israelis about the unsupervised existence of atomic bombs and the means of production. Although Vanunu intended to attract Israelis' attention to what was going on in Dimona, he ultimately only managed to arouse interest in the kidnapping ruse that was done with the help of the Mossad beauty "Sindy". The struggle against nuclear weapons in this country, which has existed for more than 30 years, involves only a handful of people. Even Yeshayahu Leibowitz lost interest in Vanunu's revelations since he converted to Christianity. In his letter from three months ago Vanunu wrote to his Israeli supporters how disappointed he is with them. He did not write much about himself and his conditions in jail, but mainly about the struggle against nuclear weapons. "...Since you have lived for years under the influence of powerful and intoxicating drugs of so-called 'security'... to this day no organization with serious political power has been found to work against the nuclear monster... What is wrong with you? What are you afraid of?... It seems that you are the ones who need support, not me, and I am interested in encouraging you and supporting you... I will continue to raise my voice, because the nuclear issue was and remains my primary interest... I want to lead to the end of Israel's nuclear adventure by destroying the reactor in Dimona, like it was decided to destroy the reactor in Iraq in 1981." Vanunu's letter, which takes up many pages, was written about two months before he was taken out of isolation and it is angry, confrontational and not completely coherent. The few visitors who have seen him in jail say that in the course of 11 years of solitary confinement, which ended on March 13 this year, his mental state has greatly deteriorated. In their view, it is possible that the prison authorities decided to end his solitary confinement because it was nearly the last minute to save him from insanity. Since the security circustances that led to his incarceration in solitary confinement have not changed in years, the question is posed even more pointedly today, why did the State of Israel decide to impose a harsher sentence on Vanunu and add total isolation to the 18 years imprisonment that were imposed by the court. Does the State even have the legal and moral authority to knowingly cause a prisoner irreprable emotional damage? Lawyer Avigdor Feldman, who has handled Vanunu's case from the beginning, has no explanation for the change in policy. He guesses that removing Vanunu from isolation derived from the State's fear of the petition to the High Court of Justice on this issue, and perhaps the international pressure made its mark. Some people say that the isolation was ended after Vanunu promised not to reveal the names of people who worked with him at the plant in Dimona. Adv. Feldman thinks that that was not the real reason, since Vanunu always said that he had no intention or interest in publicizing names. To the best of Feldman's knowledge, Vanunu promised nothing. People close to him say that he has never agreed to any sort of deals. He is not prepared to express remorse nor is he willing to undertake to remain silent. The struggle against nuclear weapons continues to interest him more than any improvement in his conditions in jail, and he was also not prepared to be exchanged for any spy, because he insists on stating that he is not a spy. Incidentally, the court accepted Vanunu's version that he did what he did for the sake of the struggle against nuclear weapons and not out of greed. In February 1997 the magazine "The Other Side" published an incidental interview that was held with Vanunu in the Summer of '85, shortly before he fled the country with Israel's nuclear secrets. The interview was part of a study that was conducted by Prof. Amiel Alkelai of New York about Oriental Jews in Israel and their positions concerning the Arabs. Interviewer Ilana Sugbaker met Vanunu when he was an MA student in philosophy at Beersheba University and she heard from him about his immigration to Israel from Marrakesh in 1963, about his concept of "Morrocanism" and about the changes that took place in his political positions. In the interview Vanunu said that up to the time that he came to Israel he considered himself to be a Morrocan, but since he immigrated that ended. "Some people continue to like Morrocan songs and traditions, but that is not to my taste. It is being given artificial respiration... I think that it is more important now for us to speak Arabic with the Arabs here and come to know their songs, than to revive Morrocan Arabic." Before he started studying at Beersheba University Vanunu was, in his words, a Likud supporter, like most of his family. "My parents are extremists and religious and for them everything that the Likud and Techya parties say is sacred. Along with that, they have nothing against Arabs. Because they are so religious, I became anti-religious, and since I rebelled against God, I was also able to break my entire concept and build myself anew in all areas," Vanunu said in the interview. It is enlightening to read his statements in hindsight, knowing that several months after the interview he fled abroad with photographs from inside the Dimona reactor, where he worked as a technician. "The Jews must stop constantly feeling that everyone wants to destroy them," Vanunu said then. "People who constantly feel that they are being persecuted, defend themselves well and prepare for war, but people did not come here to fight all the time and die, and to suffer from an economic situation that is the direct result of the defense expenditures that are destructive to the State." In the same interview Vanunu explicitly stated: "I can tell you that I am now trying to get away from here, to go abroad and perhaps not return. I walk around here and I am pessimistic. It is difficult to live here when you feel that so few people think the way you do. If I believed that there would be peace I would stay, but if there is no peace I have no reason to live here." Just as he severed himself from Judaism in '85, when he was converted by a pacifist Australian priest, he several months ago severed himself from his biological parents, when he consented to the request of two American Christians to legally adopt him. After a court in the U.S. approved the adoption, the directors of Ashkelon prison granted the request of the adoptive parents to meet with Vanunu for two hours. The visit exploded when Vanunu started speaking about prohibited subjects. He was forcibly taken out of the room, but his behavior did not prevent the ending of his isolation shortly afterwards. It seems that there is no longer any fear concerning what Vanunu might have to say, and the question is whether there was ever any fear, or was the solitary confinement merely an act of vengeance. Vanunu's family and other supporters say that they have no complaints towards the prison administration. The attitude of the commander of Ashkelon prison, Yitzhak Gabai, is especially humane. When Vanunu was first taken out of isolation (according to the decision of the Commissioner of Security in the Defense Ministry and in consultation with the State Attorney's office), the prison commander walked among the prisoners with him and made the initial introductions. At the present time he is permitted to meet with his brothers once a week and a point-to-point telephone connected to his attorney's office has been installed. Visits by people who are not family members are still prohibited. Only two Knesset members can take credit for consistent activity to end Vanunu's isolation. The first to work on this issue was MK Dedi Zucker from Meretz alone, and later also MK Yossi Katz from the Labor Party. Shulamit Aloni also spoke out on this issue. In Israel no political profit is gained from such activity. In the Israeli left, even more so than in the right wing, the support for nuclear weapons is sweeping. The argument is that whoever is willing to give back territory, must have a proper security alternative. [Labor Party leader] Shlomo Ben-Ami even described Israel's nuclear policy as "ingenious". But even the most fervent supporters of Israel's nuclear policy could have demanded the alleviation of his solitary confinement, or at least found out whether his isolation had any real security grounds. Vanunu's adoptive parents, Nick and Mary Eoloff, are veteran anti-nuclear activists in the U.S. and are currently leading a struggle against a land mine production plant in their city in Minnesota. They are trying to argue that Vanunu's 11 years in solitary confinement were a much heavier penalty than the 18 years to which he was sentenced. If they succeed in working for his early release, they will try to hospitalize Vanunu in a rehabilitation center for victims of torture in St. Paul, MN. There is no guarantee that Vanunu will cooperate with them.
The Israeli daily, Ha'aretz, |
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St. Paul couple visit their son in Israel--behind bars Last month, Mary and Nick Eoloff met their adopted son for the first time. But they could not embrace him because the meeting took place in a prison near Tel Aviv, and steel grating kept parents and son apart. The son is Mordechai Vanunu, a 43-year-old Israeli who was convicted of treason in 1986 and sentenced to 18 years in prison. He has been kept in solitary confinement in a 6-by-9-foot cell. The Eoloffs, of St. Paul, are anti-nuclear peace activists who adopted Vanunu last October under Minnesota law after exchanging letters with him for three years. They say they were drawn to him because of his courage and the harsh conditions of his imprisonment. Vanunu, a former nuclear technician, sold photos of Israel's secret nuclear weapons plant to the Sunday Times of London. Experts were able to determine from the pictures that Israel had a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons. Vanunu was caught by what the world of espionage calls a "honey trap" -- a sexy woman. An Israeli agent, she lured Vanunu to a meeting and persuaded him to fly with her to Italy, where he was kidnapped, dugged and shipped back to Israel in a crate. Israeli officials, who refuse to recognize the adoption, have recently siad that they might let Vanunu move to a regular cell at the high-security prison, which is in the coastal town of Ashkelon. The Eoloffs, who arrived in Israel on Feb. 10, said it took a whole week of negotiating with prison officials -- who had not replied to letters -- to set up the meeting. When the meeting was finally approved, she said, "we and Mordechai had to agree to several conditions: we couldn't talk about his nuclear work or his kidnapping or the secret trial." The Eoloffs went to the prison with Vanunu's two brothers for what they had been told would be a two-hour visit. "In the first words we said, my husband apologied for having waited so long to adopt Mordechai," reconunted Mary Eoloff. "He said we didn't need to apologize and he was grateful for our coming all that way to see him. It was a very intense, emotional meeting and we all cried. We were able to touch fingers through the grating." "We told him about what we're doing in the states to try to win his release and talked about his physical state -- he looks good but much older than 43 -- and how he spends his day. He reads and he goes in the yard, alone. There's a light on in his cell 24 hours a day. He gets up at 5 and stays in bed for two hours, and he takes a nap in the afternoon, because the guards wake him up at night. We talked about the efforts to let him join the general prison population and get access to a phone and a computer, and Nick asked him to write to President Clinton to make a personal appeal." Vanunu, who has converted to Anglicanism, told the Eoloffs that for the first five years in prison he read the Bible every day but had decided that it was not helping and now "tries to get his strength from within." The Eoloffs have not asked Vanunu why he converted but say that although he is very angry with Israel for what he feels is an unjust conviction, he does not seem to harbor any hatred of Judaism or the Jewish state. Mary Eoloff noted that Vanunu has never denied giving the newspaper the photographs. "He says he wanted to start a dialogue on nuclear weapson," she said. "He wants a Mideast that's free of nuclear weapons." The meeting was cut short after about 20 minutes. "At one point Mordechai mentions something about the kidnapping, but the English-speaking guard either missed it or decided to ignore it," Mary Eoloff said. "But when he mentioned it a second time the guard said the meeting was over. His brothers argued with the guards about it, but it didn't do any good." The Eoloffs stayed in Israel another few days and spoke with a member of the Knesset (parliament) who has been leading the efforts to get Vanunu moved into the general prison population. The Eoloffs, who are in their 60s, are retired; Nick was an editor at West Publishing and Mary was a teacher. They plan to continue to work with human rights groups in the United States to try to win Vanunu's release and to send more letters on his behalf to President Clinton, who has not replied to their letters so far.
by Larry Miller, |
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