REPORT Dublin Solidarity with Vanunu

by Ciaron - Dublin Catholic Worker & Pitstop Ploughshares Fri Apr 23, 2004 13:39 087 918 4552

Ambassador
Embassy of Israel
122 Pembroke Rd.
Dublin 4
IRELAND

Dear Ambassador,

WE CITIZENS OF IRELAND/PEOPLE LIVING IN IRELAND OF IRELAND ASK YOU TO DO TWO THINGS

1. Seriously reflect and examine the issues of your government's manufacture & possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction raised by the nonviolent witess & 18 year imprisonment of Mordechaii Vanunu.

2. Demand your government release Mordechai Vanunu immediately without any restrictions on his liberty or freedom. Your government presently has imposed the following restrictions on Mr. Vanunu on his release from prison on 21/4/04

a. He will not be allowed to leave Israel for 12 months.

b. Vanunu will have to register his residence, and receive permission of the authorities if he wishes to travel to another city.

c. He will be forbidden to contact foreigners either by phone or in person.

d. It remains unclear whether his American adoptive parents, who last visited him at the prison on Monday, will be allowed to communicate at all with him when free.

e. He is forbidden to talk about his work at Dimona with journalists, although he may discuss his kidnapping from Italy.

f. He may be near but is forbidden to enter any foreign embassy, and may not approach any port of entry or international boundary.

The above request has been echoed today by Amnesty International....

Amnesty International joined the global call for the unconditional release of Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu. In a statement from their London office, the international human rights organization said it "urges the Israeli authorities not to impose any restrictions or conditions on former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu upon his release on Wednesday after 18 years in jail."
"Mordechai Vanunu should be allowed to exercise his rights to freedom of movement, association and expression in Israel and should be allowed to leave the country if he wishes," said Amnesty International. "His release is long overdue and Israel must not continue to violate his fundamental human rights once he is released from prison."

Their statement continues:
"...In recent months Israeli officials have publicly supported and called for Vanunu to be detained beyond expiry of his sentence, or for his freedom to be restricted upon his release. Available information indicates that the Israeli authorities intend to impose heavy restrictions on Vanunu's freedom upon his release, including banning him from leaving the country, confining him to assigned residence, and denying him the right to be in contact with journalists and foreigners. "Israel is bound by international law not to impose arbitrary restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu, including on his right to travel within the country or abroad, his right to peaceful association with others and his right to express his opinions," said Amnesty International.

Background
Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Israel has ratified and is obliged to uphold, stipulates that:
"everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence" and that "everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own". The rights to freedom of expression and association are guaranteed by Articles 19 and 21 of the same Covenant.

In the spirit of a world based on freedom and peace

Yours sincerely

by M. Vanunu Fri Apr 23, 2004 13:43

I Am Your Spy
by Mordechai Vanunu

I am the clerk, the technician, the mechanic, the driver.
They said, Do this, do that, don't look left or right,
don't read the text. Don't look at the whole machine. You
are only responsible for this one bolt. For this one rubber-stamp.
This is your only concern. Don't bother with what is above you.
Don't try to think for us. Go on, drive. Keep going. On, on.

So they thought, the big ones, the smart ones, the futurologists.
There is nothing to fear. Not to worry.
Everything's ticking just fine.
Our little clerk is a diligent worker. He's a simple mechanic.
He's a little man.
Little men's ears don't hear, their eyes don't see.
We have heads, they don't.

Answer them, said he to himself, said the little man,
the man with a head of his own. Who is in charge? Who knows
where this train is going?
Where is their head? I too have a head.
Why do I see the whole engine,
Why do I see the precipice--
is there a driver on this train?

The clerk driver technician mechanic looked up.
He stepped back and saw -- what a monster.
Can't believe it. Rubbed his eyes and -- yes,
it's there all right. I'm all right. I do see
the monster. I'm part of the system.
I signed this form. Only now I am reading the rest of it.

This bolt is part of a bomb. This bolt is me. How
did I fail to see, and how do the others go on
fitting bolts. Who else knows?
Who has seen? Who has heard? -- The emperor really is naked.
I see him. Why me? It's not for me. It's too big.

Rise and cry out. Rise and tell the people. You can.
I, the bolt, the technician, mechanic? -- Yes, you.
You are the secret agent of the people. You are the eyes of the nation.
Agent-spy, tell us what you've seen. Tell us what the insiders, the clever ones, have hidden from us.
Without you, there is only the precipice. Only catastrophe.

I have no choice. I'm a little man, a citizen, one of the people,
but I'll do what I have to. I've heard the voice of my conscience
and there's nowhere to hide.
The world is small, small for Big Brother.
I'm on your mission. I'm doing my duty. Take it from me.

Come and see for yourselves. Lighten my burden. Stop the train.
Get off the train. The next stop -- nuclear disaster. The next book,
the next machine. No. There is no such thing.

-written from Ashkelon Prison, Israel

by CW5 Sat Apr 24, 2004 23:33

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