I Am Your Spy - Vigils for the Nuclear Whistle Blower and Prisoner of Conscience

international | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis

Tuesday August 26, 2003 01:01

by Brian

Vigils for the Nuclear Whistle Blower and Prisoner of Conscience

Mordechai Vanunu is a name not well known by most people. He is a man who has spent nearly 17 years in prison in Israel. 11 ½ of those years were spent in solitary confinement. He has spent more time in isolation in a western prison than any other human being in the world. And all of this for a crime of conscience.

His story is known by far too few and utterly ignored by mainstream media, so I will briefly recount, for those not familiar, the story of Mordechai Vanunu.

Mordechai Vanunu was an Israeli citizen who, after serving in the Israeli army, went to work as a technician in the Dimona Nuclear Facility in the Negev Desert in Israel. For a long time, Israel claimed this was a textile factory. It was, in fact, a plant producing Plutonium which Israel was using to build a nuclear arsenal. In 1986, Vanunu brought evidence to a London Sunday Times reporter detailing the operations of the Dimona Facility. From his evidence (including 60 photographs from inside the plant) experts were able to discern that Israel had approximately 200 nuclear weapons of assorted varieties. It is now estimated that Israel has the 6th largest nuclear arsenal in the world (the largest outside of the 5 declared nations).

Vanunu never got to see his story, as on 30th September 1986 (5 days before its publication), he was lured to Rome, drugged and brought back to Israel by Mossad agents. He was tried in secret and sentenced to 18 years in prison for treason. The first 11 ½ years were spend in solitary confinement in a 6x9 foot cell. Vanunu has now spent more than a third of his life in prison and has been denied parole time and time again on the grounds that his knowledge is a threat to Israel (At his last parole hearing they even went so far as to say that if he were released, knowing what he knows, the Americans – who were at the time attacking Iraq – would leave Iraq and go after Israel and their nuclear arsenal).

He is currently due for release on April 22nd 2004, though Yehiyel Horev, a powerful figure in the Israeli Ministry of Defense has stated repeatedly that he intends never to let Vanunu leave Israel.

To mark the 17th anniversary of his kidnap and imprisonment by Israeli authorities, people around the world are organising vigils outside Israeli embassies for 30th September. Because this will likely be the last September 30th Mordechai will spend in prison the organisers would like to have vigils in as many cities as possible.

If you are interested in taking part in or organising a vigil for Mordechai Vanunu you can contact the U.S. campaign to free Vanunu at freevanunu@mindspring.com or the British campaign to free Vanunu at campaign@vanunu.freeserve.co.uk.

In the past there have been vigils in Wellington, Sydney, Jerusalem, New Dehli, Chennai, Hiroshima, Washington DC, San Francisco, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Salisbury, Leicester, Lisbon, Rome, Stockholm and Oslo. These have consisted of anywhere from 3 to 50 participants

Despite his long incarceration, Vanunu has stayed true to his original message and has never wavered in his dedication to nuclear disarmament.

"I have sacrificed my freedom and risked my life in order to expose the danger of nuclear weapons which threatens this whole region." --- Mordechai Vanunu

More information on Mordechai Vanunu and the Campaign to free him can be found at:
http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/

You can sign a petition to free Mordechai Vanunu at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/freemordechaivanunu/

Israel recently cut off ties with the BBC over a Correspondent documentary about Mordechai Vanunu. The transcript to this show can be found at:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1665.shtml

You can write to Mordechai Vanunu at:
DR. MORDECHAI VANUNU
ASHKELON PRISON
ASHKELON ISRAEL