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Vanunu's
'Secret'
When governments substitute paranoia for law.
By
Eileen Fleming
12/11/07 "ICH"
--- - On January
8, 2008,
Mordechai Vanunu's appeal begins fighting a six month jail
sentence for speaking to foreign media in 2004, after his
release from 18 years in jail, most of it in solitary
confinement.
Israel
maintains that the little man who exposed its WMD Program in
1986 is still a 'security' threat and that he has more
secrets he has yet to reveal.
During Vanunu's
captivity in
East Jerusalem,
he has spoken with hundreds of internationals, but he is no
longer talking to media. When I last saw him in July 2007
and asked him why, he told me, "All the interviews I have
given haven't helped me."
If
Israel
had allowed Vanunu to leave
Israel
in 2004 as he desired this committed Christian and civilian
journalist would never have met him. But
Israel
held him under the draconian British Mandate Emergency
Regulations in
Jerusalem,
which among many restrictions forbid him to speak to any
foreigners.
After WW II,
Attorney Yaccov Shapiro, who later became Israel's Minister
Of Justice, described the Emergency Defense Regulations as
"unparalleled in any civilized country: there were no such
laws in Nazi Germany."[ N.S. Ateek, Justice and Only
Justice p.34]
In March, 2006,
Vanunu informed 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. My freedom of speech trial began
January 25, 2006
for speaking to the media, the same day as the Palestinian
elections."
The USA MSM has
been missing in action all during Vanunu's historic year and
a half long freedom of speech trial. But, in 2005 and 2006,
Vanunu spoke with me on video in the spirit of Article 19 of
the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, which
Israel's
statehood was contingent upon upholding:
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. Article 19
During Vanunu's
18 years in jail, he lived in a tomb sized cell without
windows and was psychologically and emotionally tortured.
For the first two years Vanunu was deprived of sleep and
watched on a camera. A bright light in his cell shone
constantly and when ever he closed his eyes, a guard would
immediately enter and shine a brighter light into his face
and claim they were just checking if he had committed
suicide; yet!
On
9/18/04
in
London,
Yoko Ono awarded Vanunu a peace prize founded in memory of
and in the spirit of John Lennon's "Give Me Some Truth"
released in 1971.
All I want
is the truth
Just gimme
some truth
I've had
enough of reading things
By
neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want
is the truth
Just gimme
some truth
And what is
truth?
In December 1998,
the Anglican Rev. David B. Smith, of Australia, compiled,
formatted and published LETTERS FROM SOLITARY: Letters
from Mordechai Vanunu to David Smith written during
his 11 years of solitary confinement.
Reverend Smith
wrote:
I first met Morde
late on a Friday night. We were running a little
coffee-shop-type setup outside the church building in Kings
Cross and Morde just wandered in...His English was not
terrific, but we managed some pretty serious conversation at
our first meeting. Morde had recently completed studies at
university. I had completed university just before entering
seminary. Morde had been studying philosophy. I had just
completed my honours degree in philosophy! Morde’s interest
had been in existentialism. Mine had been also! Morde’s
chief figure of interest was Nietzsche – the belligerent
German atheist. Mine was Kierkegaard – the eccentric
Christian preacher. Morde had read Kierkegaard, and my first
introduction to Kierkegaard had been in a course comparing
him to Nietzsche. We found we had plenty to talk about.
It was a curious
scene that developed that night. Two figures in the middle
of the Cross, locked in passionate discussion about theories
of meaning and existence. In Morde’s broken English we
managed to discuss Nietzsche’s concept of ‘staring into the
abyss’ of your life and embracing your despair, and
Kierkegaard’s optimistic alternative – throwing yourself
into the abyss and finding that the abyss is God and is able
to support you.
At the time my
own faith was deeply intertwined with these concepts. For
Morde though, I don’t think I realized exactly how much was
at stake in his thinking until much further down the track.
Some months later Morde would embrace the Christian faith,
and let go of much of his former life. At an academic level
he was also very self-consciously embracing Kierkegaard and
rejecting Nietzsche. This is significant, for Kierkegaard
was always on about taking ‘risks’, or ‘leaps of faith’, as
he would call them.
The one complete
work of Kierkegaard that had been translated into Hebrew,
and which Morde had read, was his eulogy on Abraham,
entitled ‘Fear and Trembling’. In it Kierkegaard reflects on
Abraham’s call to go and sacrifice his son Isaac. How can
this be right, when it seems to be a betrayal of his family,
and is contrary to his reason and even to his conscience?
Yet Abraham knows that this is what he has been called to by
God, and so he sets out upon his task, albeit with ‘fear and
trembling’.
Morde would make
his own leap of faith. He would come to the front of
St John’s
church and say out loud ‘Now I give myself to God. Now I do
what I must do.’ True to the Kierkegaardian spirit, Morde
made his decision alone...
...It has been
extraordinary to read and hear some of the things people
have said about Morde – that he was a ‘professional spy’, a
‘trained terrorist’, a ‘brilliant con-man’. How much time
did such people spend actually trying to get to know the
guy? ‘For God’s sake’ I feel like shouting ‘this man is my
friend. You obviously don’t know him at all.’
As clever as
Morde was (and is) at an academic level, when it came to the
subtle art of spying, Morde was downright naive! I’ll never
forget the incident at the airport where Morde misplaced the
bag with the entire collection of Dimona photos! Where had
he put it? It was found at the top of the escalators, where
he had left it when he went to check in! Not exactly the
behaviour of a professional secret agent.
The naivete was
evident too in the matter of the money he was supposed to be
paid. "They say they are going to pay me something for the
photos" he told me one Sunday morning. He added "I will give
the money to the church here and it will help in the
ministry."
On 27th
February 1987,
Vanunu wrote:
...now I know
that my task in this world is to devote myself for working
and helping other people, and my task here in Israel is to
show that I was born Jewish but I find that JC is our
savior. This will not make my life easy here but this faith
will keep me strong and make my suffering bearable.......Yet
I am not allowed to see a priest. They cannot succeed to
take from me one of the most important human rights in a
democratic country. I wrote a letter to the Bishop Samir
Kafity (Anglican Bishop of
Jerusalem)
and I asked him to send me one of the priests.......Next
week is the trial. I am not worried or afraid because I know
what I did and I know who I am. I believe that what happens
to me is God’s will, and I will wait for my release.
.......I don’t
know a lot about what is going on outside the prison because
they keep me isolated. Even my lawyer I see only one time a
week, and my brothers every two weeks for one half hour. My
parents came to see me one time; they didn’t like my faith.
I think someone sent them to me because I know my parents. I
am a Christian; they will not come to see me again. I have
sorrow for them, but as Jesus said, who wants me must leave
his parents and follow me. My brothers are not concerned
about my faith. Everyone wants to know why I became a
Christian and I send them to learn of Kierkegaard’s
philosophy. There I find love and Jesus, and everyone has to
open his heart to find this love, and then Jesus will be
wherever we might be.......
On 5 June
1987,
Vanunu wrote:
…I am spending 24
hours every day alone in a cell reading the Bible and other
books. Praying every morning and evening, and trying to know
more of God’s words. Here I am alone in my faith but by
reading the New Testament I feel encouraged, and it gives me
strength. The life of the Lord JC is the way I am following,
and his words to the Jews are what I can say to the Jews
here today…I feel that the spirit of God is with me all the
time, and now here he keeps me alive and gives me the power
to stand in this country, and to say the Lord JC is the
truth…
On
November 27, 1987,
Vanunu wrote:
......But now I
know that all that they want is to break my faith, my soul,
to separate me from my brothers in Christ. So I have to be
more concerned about what they are doing. And be stronger in
my faith and keep my faith deep in my heart with me here in
my small cell......God called me to know him and to be his
servant and I accept his mission. All what I have done is
from my conscience......I did my decision alone by the voice
of God who called me in my heart. And the same thing
happened with my action against nuclear weapons. From the
beginning it has come to me from my belief from inside - my
values, my respect for the human being and the human right.
And of course everyone knows and understands all about
nuclear weapons - the new holocaust that is hanging over our
lives......
On 28
January, 1989,
Vanunu wrote:
...Most of my
time here I am using to be very strong in my faith, by
reading the New Testament every day in a loud voice and
praying......Now I am waiting for my next appeal to the
Supreme Court…I was not a spy. And the people here and in
all the world have the right to know what their Government
has been hiding from them in the nuclear issues. I am not
guilty. I did my duty. If I did not have this information, I
could not publish it, but God chose those who will do his
mission. I believe that I served God’s mission…to do peace,
to make the people aware of the nuclear holocaust…No one can
change this truth and no one can change my faith and my
mind...
In June 2006,
Vanunu told me, "When I decided to expose Israel's nuclear
weapons I acted out of conscience and to warn the world to
prevent a nuclear holocaust...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 only way to
peace is peace; the only way is non-violence. The only
answer to Israeli nuclear weapons, their aggression,
occupation and oppression, the wall and refugee camps is to
answer them with truth and a peace-full voice. When I became
the spy for the world I did it all for the people of the
world. If governments do not report the truth, if media does
not report the truth, all we can do is follow our
conscience...Israel
is the only country in the
Middle East
where
America
can right now find WMD's.
America
can also find where basic human rights have been denied
Christians, right here in
Israel...
"My Christian
conversion was also considered as treason and led to me
receiving more time in jail than any murderer has ever
served. The Israelis have this very beautiful article about
freedom and liberty but they want to destroy anyone who
criticizes them for revealing the truth to the world. The
world must look and see what kind of democracy
Israel
is when one speaks out the truth.
Israel
is not a democracy unless you are a Jew."
Anyone who speaks
with Vanunu for even a few minutes will understand that the
'secret' Vanunu has that can harm
Israel
is bad PR and the example of what happens to truth tellers
when governments substitute paranoia for law.
Eileen Fleming, Reporter and
Editor
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish
American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu."
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