Commentary
How Vanunu harms Israel: Bad PR!
By Eileen Fleming
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jul 17, 2008, 00:18

Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. --Article 13-2 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

On July 8, instead of ending Mordechai Vanunu’s freedom of speech trial which began in January 2006, the three Judges have put off their decision until September.

His brother Meir has predicted, “So we wait to September, and then I bet it will be another postponed hearing.”

In July 2007, Israel convicted Vanunu on 14 counts of violating the prohibition of speaking to foreigners -- from over a hundred interviews he gave foreign journalists in 2004. Vanunu has been prohibited from leaving the state and denied the right to speak with any foreigners since his 2004 release from 18 years in prison for exposing Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program in 1986.

From email conversations with Vanunu between July 9 -14, 2008, he wrote: “I have the right to leave, the right to be free. It is time for this case to be ended and time to allow me my rights.

“These are three new judges reviewing the previous decision by one judge, who decided I am guilty and should serve 6 months in jail for the interviews I gave foreign media in 2004.

“These three judges have the power to drive my case and open the way for me to leave Israel.

“These three judges asked many questions of the prosecution who spoke for an hour. The judges wanted to know why the government insists on putting me back in prison, although I have not caused any security damages from meeting with thousands of foreigners.

“I continue to refuse to speak to Israeli media, and no other media except Norway was present, but many friends and supporters were with me.

“Since my release from prison on April 21, 2004, Israel has denied me the right to speak with any foreigners and I have openly defied this unjust order by speaking with thousands of human beings because human beings have rights and States have obligations.

“My photographic evidence taken in 1985, before I departed the Dimona for the last time has not caused Israel a breach of security, nor has any of my speaking to human beings.

“I never received any payment for my photos or from the over 100 interviews I gave to journalists in 2004, which were used as testimony against me.

“All I am asking is to leave the state for my life is in danger in Israel and I am unable to find employment in occupied East Jerusalem.

“All I am asking for is the right to leave Israel and have a life that is not under occupation.

“VANUNU MORDECHAI J C.
“KIDNAPPED IN ROME SEP’ 30 TH’-1986.
“AFTER 18 YEARS IN ISRAEL PRISON.
“Waiting In East Jerusalem.To Be Free,To Leave.
“P.O.Box 20102. Salah Adin St.’
“East Jerusalem. 91384
Mobile ( 9 7 2 ) 0 5 2 3 7 4 4 5”

Ever since I met Vanunu in June 2005, I have been saying the only way he can harm Israel is with bad PR, for anyone who speaks with him for just a few minutes has great compassion for this man who told the truth in 1986 and continues to pay the price.

On July 11, I sent the following email to Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister; Ehud Barak Minister of Defense; Ms. Tsipi Livni, Minister of Foreign Affairs,; Prof. Daniel Friedman, Minister of Justice; and President Bush 

Dear Mr. Ehud Olmert, Mr. Ehud Barak, Ms. Tsipi Livni, Prof. Daniel Friedman and President George W. Bush,

Real friends speak the truth in love and the truth is that thousands of internationals have met and spoken with Mordecahi Vanunu since his release in 2004.

The truth is that the ONLY way Vanunu can harm Israel is with bad PR.

A new generation of youth are now being inspired by Vanunu’s story and USA Christians are learning the truth about the ‘democracy’ of Israel on the World Wide Web.

Vanunu has openly defied the unjust order against him denying him the inalienable right to speak to foreigners, by meeting with thousands of tourists and pilgrims because “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, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

 Vanunu never desired to harm Israel, but only to bring Israel to its senses when he told the truth about Israel’s secret underground WMD program.

Emile Zola warned, “If you shut up the truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.”

In 1946, Lewis Mumford understood that “You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased . . . to obey the laws of life.”

The photographic evidence Vanunu provided in 1985, before leaving the Dimona for the last time has not caused Israel a breach of security, nor has any of his speaking to human beings over the last four plus years.

However, much bad PR has been reaped, for EVERYONE who meets Vanunu has compassion for this man whose ongoing persecution has made him into an Icon for Freedom of Speech and Christian Persecution by the Jewish State.

As a true friend to Israel, I am reminding you of Israel’s own Declaration of Establishment:

“On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations.”

Israel has so far chosen to invoke the British Mandate Emergency Defense Regulations against Vanunu, and our “30 Minutes with Vanunu” taped in March of 2006 discussed this very fact.

After WW II, Attorney Yaccov Shapiro, an Israeli Minister of Justice, described the Emergency Defense Regulations as “unparalleled in any civilized country: there were no such laws in Nazi Germany.”

Please honor your prophets and in the name of Justice, Mercy and Democracy allow Vanunu to leave Israel, so that he may have a life of liberty and pursue happiness.

In Solidarity with Micah 6:8: “What does God require? He has told you o’ man! Be just, be merciful, and walk humbly with your Lord,” the following videos are freely streaming on the World Wide Web: 

“13 Minutes with Vanunu” on video, taped January 2008:
Click here to view the latest Vanunu Video
(Requires Windows Media Player)
view the video on google by clicking here.