Vanunu detained again

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Saturday November 19, 2005 04:13

by Justin Morahan - Peace People

Whistleblower arrested on bus at checkpoint and taken in "for questioning"

The long persecution of Mordechai Vanunu continues as the State of Israel continues to refuse to Let Vanunu Go
For releasing the secrets of Israel's illicit nuclear arsenal, the powers that be within Israel seem bent on breaking his indomitable spirit.

Mordechai Vanunu was detained yesterday in Jerusalem as he crossed a checkpoint from Palestine into Israel to the north of Jerusalem

Reuters reports that Israeli paramilitary border police carried out a spot check on a bus travelling through al-Ram checkpoint towards Jerusalem, and noticed Vanunu among the passengers

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld is quoted as saying: "He has been taken to our International Crimes Unit for questioning,"

An Associated Press report from Jerusalem quotes another police spokesman, Shmuel Ben-Ruby, as saying that Mordechai Vanunu was arrested because Israelis have been forbidden from entering Palestinian-controlled areas since fighting broke out between the sides in 2000

However, as the same report points out, an Israeli court ruled last May that an earlier visit he had made to "the Palestinian areas" did not constitute a violation of his conditions of release, which forbid him from visiting foreign countries.

The Times on line rpeorts that when arrested at the al-Ram checkpoint as he returned from the West Bank, Vanunu told public television . “I wanted to protest against the apartheid wall that is shutting the Palestinians off in a ghetto,” referring to the barrier that Israel is constructing through sections of the West Bank.

Vanunu was released from Ashkelon prison last April after eighteen years but was served notice on his release of severe limitations to his freedom. Among other penalties, he was forbidden to speak to foreigners, give interviews, approach embassies or go near the borders of Israel, change address for even one night without informing the police or leave the State of Israel. He rejects all of the strictures on his freedom and in January faces charges of having broken many of them.

During his term of imprisonment, he spent eleven and a half years in solitary confinment. For the rest of his sentence he was allowed only to associate with Israeli prisoners with whom he was unpopular and was forbidden contact with Palestinian prisoners who empathised with him.

Although forbidden, he continues to speak out on matters of peace and justice and human rights, particularly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with which he is most familiar. In an al-Jazeerah interview last September he said: "If the Jews have the right of return, based on what happened 2,000 years ago, then the Palestinians have the right of return after 50 years as well. With one state, there will be no more conflict over land and there will be no more enemies."

Israel has consistently rejected pleas from all over the world to let Vanunu go. Since his release in April 2004, he has spent 579 days in the virtual prison of the State of Israel itself. Like a captured bird he was cruelly put into a miniscule cage-within-a -cage, then allowed access to the cage itself, and after eighteen years "released" to the kitchen of his captors but no farther.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18788706.htm http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=163005516&p=y63xx6zzz

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Comments (10 of 10)

Noel

Tue Jan 03, 2006 20:01

You are doing the State of Israel, the Israeli Embassy and your anonymous self no credit with these infantile comments.

Vanunu no no

by Noel

Wed Dec 07, 2005 16:35

I don't go along with a lot of israelis regarding Vanunu.
I think he was a dupe of Mossad et al - and was allowed to divulge just enough information to make the neighbouring Arab states shit their pants.
Leaving the soon to be extinct Iranian Nukes aside; there's not much talk of Wars of Annihilation of the Jews any more.

Not surprised

by Noel eile

Wed Dec 07, 2005 14:30

Not surpirsed that Noel again only comes out when israel's illegal activities are discussed

Noel, the embassy cannot hide from the world the illegal actions of the state of Israel, its state terrorism or it's terrorism of its own citizens.

Vanunu wants to leave, he has no more information on Israel's secret nuclear weapons programme

People like you may feel you are funny but you are merely making people more aware of the kind of state Israel is and the methods it uses to get what it wants

Whistle blower

Wed Dec 07, 2005 14:16

Mordechai,

Couldn't find anything appropriate from Aristotle or Socrates.
However I think I hit legal gold with Pluto.

Hope this helps as much as I want it to.

Statement from Mordechai Vanunu

by Jon Glackin

Tue Dec 06, 2005 23:44

My Dears Friends.

On 15 January 2006 I will stand trial in the Israeli
court.?I will be charged with 21 counts of speaking
or meeting with foreigners, which Israel has said I am
not allowed to do.?These restrictions were imposed on
me on 21 April 2004 upon my release from 18 years of
isolation in prison.

I am asking all of my friends and supporters all over
the world to help and support me in this very
important case.?I think this trial will concentrate
on the issue of freedom of speech.?What I need from
you is to send information about your country's
history, experience, and expertise in freedom of
speech cases.?These will help set a precedent from
other countries and will act as an example for
Israel's democratic system to follow.?I would also
like to have examples from the earliest democratic
states such as Greece and the Roman Republic.?I would
also like to have examples from speeches of the Greek
philosophers such as Pluto, Socrates, and Aristotle.
Further, if you know about anybody who was prosecuted
for their freedom of speech in this modern age, please
find out his/her defense and arguments (poems would be
welcome as well) and send them to me.?All of this
will be sent to my lawyer it will be presented by me
during the trial.

I think this will be a landmark trial because we are
challenging Israel's democracy to prove that these
restrictions are contrary to the democratic standard
all over the world.?It is the right of every human
being to exercise his/her freedom of speech without
any restrictions.?

Thank you very much for your help.?We hope to succeed
in our stand against this barbaric order.?

VMJC

--
message
Stone walls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free.
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.R Lovelace.

vmjc1954@gmail.com

uchar! encer! brero al poder!

Continued persecution of Mordecahi Vanunu is cruel and unjust

by Peace People

Tue Nov 22, 2005 14:00

PRESS RELEASE

Once again The Peace People must comment on the continued harassment, punishment and persecution of Mordechai Vanunu by the State of Israel.

Not content with having imprisoned their most famous whistle-blower for eighteen years in Ashkelon and keeping him in solitary confinement for eleven and a half of those years against all the rules of human decency and humanity, the State now keeps him in semi-perpetual confinement, renewing its most severe restrictions on his freedom of speech and freedom to travel from year to year and subjecting him to continuing harassment at every opportunity. They also keep him in Israel against his wishes, apparently so that they can continue forever with this policy of illegal punishment after the end of a cruel and heinous prison sentence.

We, as human beings, call on the State of Israel and the Knesset Parliament to stop this intimidation and ongoing cruelty towards an exceptionally brave and heroic human being and to let Mordechai Vanunu go. Continuing his unjust and cruel treatment ill serves the interests of Israel in the world but rather lends weight to her already unflattering image, an image that continues to gain credence from day to day. We join with countless others - including many thousands of Israelis - in asking Israel to shake off this unsavoury image, not by propaganda but by deeds of merit.

Releasing Mordechai Vanunu from the virtual prison of Israel would be a first declaration of such intent. The world is watching

ENDS

Contact: Kevin Cassidy (Chair) 048-41738997

Harrassment of Vanunu continues

by Ernest Rodker and Adeline O'Keeffe

Mon Nov 21, 2005 16:01

PRESS RELEASE

Once again the Israeli authorities have shown their utter contempt for civilised behaviour by continuing their vindictive vendetta against Mordechai Vanunu.

Pursuing their unremitting charade, that Mordecahi poses a threat to Israeli security, he was again detained yesterday, Friday 18th November at the al-Ram checkpoint on his way to East Jerusalem. As far as we know at this moment he has been charged with no offences.

For 19 months, since his release from Ashkelon Prison, Vanunu has led a quiet life residing at St George’s Cathedral, East Jerusalem, with the blessing of Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal. At no time and on no occasion, throughout the many hundreds of interviews he has done with the world’s media, has he said anything that has come near to an official secret (you can be sure, if he had, he would already be back in prison or on trial for what he said).

However, Vanunu still faces 21 charges for talking to foreign journalists; a breach of his human rights and certainly another indication of the Israeli governments fear of his free speech and free expression. Because he told the truth about Israel’s nuclear weapons Vanunu is still a marked man. Despite having served the full 18 year sentence he received for giving his story to the Sunday Times the Israeli security services, against all the tenets of International Law, are still punishing Vanunu for his courageous act and trying to break his indomitable spirit.

At a recent appeal court hearing Vanunu’s computers were returned to him, though some of the documents had been removed. But in marked contrast to this, the Supreme Court refused to return all his 18 years of prison papers, letters and notes thereby stealing his prison history and his life’s experiences during incarceration. What sort of regime countenances this kind of brutal behaviour?

Vanunu is still being held in Israel against his wish, which is to leave the country at the earliest possible moment, but the paranoid restrictions against his free movement and free speech continue. When will his persecution end?

ends

For more information:

Ernest Rodker: 020 8672 9698
Adeline O’Keeffe: 07921 810 161

The Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu and for a Nuclear Free Middle East
for more information see
http://www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk/

Have we forgotten him?

Mon Nov 21, 2005 15:51

I find the most insidious part of the above report is the fact that the police invited the Israeli media and TV to come and report his arrest with unlimited photo coverage in all their outlets, telling them that he was going to the "occupied territories" where (Israel) were fighting the enemies. Imagine the effect that this would have on those Israelis who still want to call him a traitor but who were happy enough to end his ordeal now that he "has done his time" as they would put it. The whiff of terrorism would now have polluted their minds

Mordechai's conclusion that the world has forgotten him has indeed some justification. Since his initial release, there has been little enough protest at his continued detention in the prison of Israel and this latest incident is but another example of how that State believes it can mould opinion at home while acting with total impunity in denying the human rights of this very brave man.

Mon Nov 21, 2005 13:38

A message on his most recent arrest:
Stone walls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free.
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.
R Lovelace.
Hi
Here is my report .

Nov' 18' Arrest.

Last Friday again the Israel authorities use their
power to arrest me, but this time they put me back in
prison for 2 days, causing me back to remember all the
cruelty and hard life of 18 years in isolation.

The reason this time was because I came very close to
the check point near the wall in Aram, a small
Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem where they
have not yet decided where the apartheid wall is going
to continue.

I took a bus from the bus station in east Jerusalem
and traveled to the Aram village without being
checked, but when the bus returned to Jerusalem, they
inspected the it at the Aram check point.

At the check point, they took my ID card and the
soldiers received orders to arrest me. They
confiscated my camera and my mobile, and took me to
the nearest police station, where I waited for the
special police unit to come from Tel Aviv and take me
to there to be questioned.

Meanwhile, the police themselves invited the Israel
media TV to come and let them take as many photos as
they wanted and to report my arrest in their main
news, as a man who is going to the occupied
territories where the "enemies," "fighting" them. They
did this because they want the Israeli public to
regard me as being equal to terrorist.

I said to the media "they arrested me when I went to
see the Aram check point, to see the Apartheid wall,
the Palestinians ghettos."

In Tel Aviv they questioned me about why I was
"Interring" to the Palestine occupied territories.
They wanted to know what I was doing there and why I
was not following the general Army's orders. I said
Aram is still part of Palestine east Jerusalem, I am
not interested to see the occupied territories, I just
want to see the apartheid wall, to see this village,
and it is not yet clear where the borders of Jerusalem
are. They wanted to know with whom I was traveling,
their names, why I was with foreigners, and he wanted
to see my camera photos.

The police decided to arrest me because they wanted to
release me under court orders. However, there is no
court on the Jewish Sabbath day, so they had to wait
until Saturday night. They imprisoned me in Tel Aviv,
in a cell without any thing but a mattress and a
blanket.

Saturday morning my lawyer Feldman and Sfard, came to
see me, to hear what happened, and to represent me in
court. In the evening the police took me back to the
court, and the woman judge heard my case at 20:30.
Feldman did not agree to the police terms of my
release. They wanted 2 of week's house arrest, and
50.000 shekels. Feldman convinced the judge and even
the police that this arrest was a big mistake because
I did not violate the terms of my release, since it is
not yet clear where Israel wants to put its apartheid
wall. But, before the judge made her decision the
police capitulated and agreed for immediate release
without any condition, just my signature.

This was a small victory for Feldman in defending me,
and my friend Gideon took me back to Jerusalem, St
George, where we had a glass of Beer.

But the police and the Israeli spies couldn't go
without something. They demanded that I give them my
Camera and my mobile so they could check them. Now I
don't have my mobile and no phone connection until
receiving them back.

So that was another incident of harassment in this new
series of cruelty since my release. They will not
give up and let me go -- leave Israel. If they could
put me back in prison they would.

My conclusion: the world continues to ignore my
situation and is not doing anything to help me gain my
freedom in the same way it did during the 18 years of
my imprisonment. Nobody will intervene to demand my
release. The world stands by and allows Israel to do
as it pleases. The world will let them commit more
crimes such as kidnapping, injustice and cruelty.

vmjc

--
message
Stone walls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free.
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.R Lovelace.

On bail Saturday, in court Sunday

Sun Nov 20, 2005 01:37

Reuters reported on Saturday at10pm that Mordechai Vanunu was released on bail on Saturday evening and is to appear in court on Sunday for a further hearing.
Please continue to write to Israeli ministers including Ariel Sharon and our Israeli Ambassador asking that the persecution of Vanunu end now and he be allowed to leave Israel

Mr Daniel Megiddo
Ambassador of Israel
122 Pembroke Road Dublin 4
yperetz@knesset.gov.il
pm_heb@pmo.gov.il

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Vanunu detained again

Comments (10 of 10)