Vanunu Banned from Leaving Israel for Another Year-Solidarity Vigil Fri 4pm-6pm at Israel Embassy

international | anti-war / imperialism | event notice Tuesday April 19, 2005 16:01 by Ploughshares At Large! 087 918 4552

Vanunu 18 Years in Jailand Still Not Free!

Mordechai Vanunu, who served 18 years in prison in Israel (11 years in solitary confinement) for exposing Israel's nuclear weapons program has been banned from leaving Israel for another year.

An Irish delegationof 5 left for Israel this week to support him. They have joined an international delegation to demand that he be allowed to leave Israel.

There will be a solidarity vigil at the Israel Embassy this Friday April 22nd. from 4pm-6pm demanding Vanunu's freedom and that Israel disarms its Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Vanunu Barred from Leaving Israel for Another Year
(Four reports from different perspectives)

1. Interior Minister extends ban on Vanunu leaving country by one year (Haaretz)
2. Israel to Extend Vanunu Restrictions by 12 Months (Reuters)
3. Israel extends Vanunu travel ban - Vanunu is also forbidden to talk to foreigners without permission (BBC)
4. Vanunu's travel ban extended one year (Jerusalem Post)

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Interior Minister extends ban on Vanunu leaving country by one year
19/04/2005
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Reuters
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/566908.html

Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz decided Tuesday to ban nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu from leaving the country for a further 12 months due to concerns he could harm national security.
Pines-Paz told Army Radio he would prevent Vanunu from obtaining an Israeli passport necessary to leave the country for another year.
MK Zahava Gal-On (Yahad) ha asked Pines-Paz to cancel the order preventing Vanunu from getting a passport.
"He collected enormous amounts of information, a large part of which is still relevant, I am sorry to say ... [and] he says 'the moment that I can, I will publish it', Pines-Paz told Army Radio.
"When a man says that he will harm national security, where does that leave us? ... [This is] a preventive step and we have no choice but to use it."
Vanunu was released from prison last April after serving an 18-year sentence for spilling Israel's nuclear secrets to a British newspaper.
Vanunu was due Tuesday to address a session of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee to speak about the restrictions imposed on him since his release from prison. He, however, decided that did not want to appear before the committee, Israel Radio reported.
MK Issam Makhoul (Hadash) called for the meeting and among those due to attend were Vanunu's adoptive parents, Nick and Mary Eoloff, who came specially from the United States; Vanunu supporter Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Ireland, the 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate; journalist Uri Avneri; and Dan Yakir, chief legal counsel at the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.
The committee chairman, MK Michael Eitan, said Monday that, "I believe in an open-door policy. I am prepared to extend respect to a man convicted of spying, just as I respect someone who has received the Israel Security Prize. I don't believe in shutting people's mouths. Vanunu served his sentence and has a right to present his position."

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Israel to Extend Vanunu Restrictions by 12 Months
Tue Apr 19
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8220577

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's interior minister said on Tuesday he would ban nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu from leaving the country for a further 12 months due to concerns he could harm national security.
Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz told Army Radio he would prevent Vanunu from obtaining an Israeli passport necessary to leave the country for another year, saying Vanunu had more nuclear secrets to spill.
"He collected enormous amounts of information, a large part of which is still relevant, I am sorry to say ... (and) he says 'the moment that I can, I will publish it', Pines-Paz said.
"When a man says that he will harm national security, where does that leave us? ... (This is) a preventive step and we have no choice but to use it."
Vanunu was released from prison last April after serving an 18-year sentence for revealing to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper nuclear secrets collected from years of work as a technician at Israel's Dimona atomic reactor.
The 50-year-old former nuclear technician has said that he has no additional information about Israel's nuclear program and wants to leave the country and start a new life abroad.
Vanunu is also on trial for violating the terms of his release in which he was forbidden from speaking to foreign reporters. If convicted, he could be jailed for up to two years.
The information and photographs of the Dimona reactor that Vanunu passed on to the Sunday Times has led foreign experts to conclude that Israel has as many as 200 nuclear warheads.
Israel maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity in which it refuses to confirm or deny whether it has nuclear weapons.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

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Israel extends Vanunu travel ban
Vanunu is also forbidden to talk to foreigners without permission
Tuesday, 19 April, 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4459371.stm

Israel has extended a travel ban on former nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu for another year, Israeli interior ministry officials have said.
Vanunu cannot now leave Israel until at least 19 April 2006, said ministry spokesman Gilad Heiman.
Vanunu served 18 years in jail, most of it in solitary confinement, for making public details of Israel's secret nuclear programme.
He was released in April 2004 under strict conditions.
Vanunu has not been allowed to have a passport, is forbidden to approach ports and airports, and is banned from talking to foreigners without permission.
Israel insists Vanunu still poses a security threat.
The Israeli authorities charged Vanunu in March with violating the terms of his release from jail by giving interviews to the foreign media.
Vanunu says his action in revealing Israel's nuclear secrets aimed to avert a nuclear holocaust in the region. Many Israelis view him as a traitor.

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Vanunu's travel ban extended one year
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Apr. 19, 2005 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFu ll&cid=1113877270826

The Interior Ministry has extended by one year the order forbidding nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu from leaving country by another year, Interior Minister Ophir Paz-Pines said Tuesday morning.
After being imprisoned for 18 years for divulging intelligence about Israel's nuclear capacity to the British press, Vanunu was released last year but under severe restrictions: He is not allowed to leave Israel and his movements within the country are limited.
Last month, the state indicted Vanunu for violating the orders 21 times since his release.
Just a week ago the nuclear spy told Channel 1 and Channel 2 TV reporters, a few minutes before the opening of his trial in Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, that Israel possesses 200 atomic, hydrogen and neutron bombs and produced 40 kilograms of plutonium each year.
In an interview with Army Radio Tuesday morning, Ophir Paz-Pines remarked that Vanunu's leaking of information regarding Israel's nuclear capabilities was possibly the single most significant compromise of Israel's strategic security.
Preventing Vanunu from leaving the country is "a preventative measure," Paz-Pines stressed, since the nuclear whistle-blower has said that he would continue speaking to foreign presses to disclose any information he knows.
Paz-Pines also noted that security officials had approached him warning that it is likely that Vanunu knows even more intelligence information than he has divulged thus far, and that it would be dangerous to allow him the opportunity to reveal it.
Vanunu has said repeatedly that given the opportunity, he would continue to publicize the information he knows. "I won't be silenced. I will exercise my right to freedom of expression," he has said.
The Knesset Law Committee is set to discuss Vanunu Tuesday during its weekly meeting.