Reserved Judgement for Vanunu petition

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday July 13, 2004 14:57

by Justin Morahan - Peace People

Barred from parts of hearing

Mordechai Vanunu, who served close on 18 years in prison in Israel for having revealed secrets about the Dimona reactor, has had severe restrictions placed on his freedom of action since his release last April. An Israeli Civil Rights group has made a petiton to the Supreme Court and on 11 July the case was heard. There was the equivalent of a reserved judgement, so we await the outcome.

3 June 2004: Petition filed by ACRI (Association of Civil Rights of Israel) to Israel's Supreme Court: To cancel the severe restrictions imposed on Mordechai Vanunu after his release from an eighteen year sentence in prison last April. Legal team: Attorneys Dan Yakir and Oded Feller of ACRI. The hearing was fixed for 28 June 2004.
28 June 2004:Supreme Court Justices Barak, Maza and Chesin adjourned the case to 11 July.
3 July 2004: Nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA arrived in Israel to start his three day visit during which he toured Israel's atomic facilities - except the reactor in Dimona, the "Vanunu reactor".
11 July 2004: As he arrived at the courthouse, eight anti-Vanunu activists were protesting outside, calling him a traitor. They were dispersed by security forces. Inside, there were three sessions held and one final "new" court.
The first session was open to the public and lasted 12 minutes. Vanunu said that he hoped "for justice based on democracy, human rights and freedom of speech".
The second session was closed and lasted almost two and a half hours.
Vanunu and his lawyers were not allowed to attend. A lawyer explained that this was common enough practice in Israeli courts, also for Palestinian defendants - although Vanunu in this case is not a defendant. Mordechai noticed that a former Dimona colleague was in court during this session.
The third session was open and lasted 15 minutes. Vanunu and only one of his lawyers were allowed in. The State here argued that a notebook he had written in prison in 1991 showed how precise his recollection was, also that he would be able to reproduce such information at any time.
One judge said that, according to the newspapers, the knowledge he has is dated and that he could no longer pose a threat. The State Attorney replied that Israel would not consider restrictions if Vanunu did not have secrets and was not a danger to the State.
At 1 p.m. there was a "new" open court with pleadings and summaries. The Prsident of the Court, Justice Barak, declared that the Court had heard the parties and that a decision would be announced soon.
The equivalent of a reserved judgement in Ireland

Comments (2 of 2)

Vananu

by righteous pragmatist

Tue Jul 13, 2004 17:40

i think that Israel should let it go.
I think it is to Israel's benefit that its enemies and friends throughout the world should know that tehy possess nuclear weapons.
This will ensure that there will be no repeat of the the 1973 suprise attack against Israel by its Arab neighbours.
The present situation where Palestinian terrorist masterminds deliberately target and kill innocent Jewish men women and children forcing Israel to react by deliberately targeting and killing said Palestinian terrorist masterminds and accidentially and unintentionally killing innocent Palestinian men women and children is clearly unacceptable but is fortunately a better situation than full scale conventional war.
Nuclear weapons in the possession of Israel will ensure that convetional war is averted- (no sane Arab ground forces commander will deploy tanks and troops only for them to be incinerated-) and limited to a savage and dirty terrorist war which in comparison is causing limited casualties.

Vananu has actually done a service to Israel although he is a traitrous gutless spineless .

You can't have it both ways, righteous pragmatist

Mon Jul 26, 2004 03:07

You can't have it both ways

The world knows that Israel has nuclear weapons - you agree. Israel will
not admit it, however, and so keeps Mordechai Vanunu in virtual house arrest,
under constant threat from right-wing Israeli fanatics like those who
assassinated President Ritzhak Rabin. Israel is "afraid" that Vanunu will
"reveal" more about its nuclear weapons - although he has been in prison for eighteen years.
You are plainly wrong in your opinion of Mordechai Vanunu's character. He
told the truth, not to harm Israel, but for reasons of conscience. He
wanted and wants a nuclear-free world. He has also said many years ago that he wanted real equality between Jews and Arabs in all areas,education,
construction, housing, peace with the Arabs, and a solution to the
fundamental question of the Palestinian refugees. "200,000 people have to
be rehabilitated and settled where possible, whether on the left bank of the Jordan, in Gaza or in Israel", he said. That was in 1986.
Why do you misspell his name and refer to him as "it"?
Your view of history appears very biased: presuming as you do that every atrocity on the Israeli side has been forced on Israel by Palestinian atrocities.
I take it that you have a home and would not be too pleased if you and your family were uprooted from it by people who came in to settle here, claiming a 2000 year old inheritance right sanctioned by their religion. That is what happened, as you well know, to the Palestinians.
Arrogance on the part of the Israelis (and on your part) will do nothing to solve the problem.
Vanunu, whose family also came to Palestine from outside as settlers, saw the light and had the courage and grace to do someting to redress the wrong that had happened.