[E-rundbrief] Info 209 - Vanunus verhinderte Knesset-Rede, 16.3.05

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 209 - Mordechai Vanunu: Statement.Intended for the 
Knesset Constitution, Law and Judiciary Committee, 16.3.2005. The 
International Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu: Knesset Constitution, Law 
and Judiciary Committee Cancels Debate of Vanunu's Restrictions. Prominent 
International Delegation Calls on Israel to Cancel the Restrictions, Let 
Vanunu Go Free

Bad Ischl, 20.3.2005

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Statement of Mordechai Vanunu
Intended for the Knesset Constitution, Law and Judiciary Committee

March 16, 2005

We are here today to discuss the question of the administrative 
restrictions imposed upon me, and the international human rights issues at 
stake.

A full year has passed since my release from prison last April. Although I 
had served my entire 18-year sentence, 11 years of them in solitary 
confinement, I was placed under special administrative restrictions which 
prohibited me from leaving Israel and from communicating in any way with 
foreigners on any subject. The time has come to decide whether to impose 
these harsh restrictions for yet another year, or to give me at long last, 
my full freedom. My friends today will address the questions of 
international and domestic law; such as freedom of speech and the right to 
travel. However, there are certain personal matters I would like to address 
personally.

First, let me speak as a man who understands some nuclear science. If there 
were ever to be a nuclear accident at Dimona, an enormous radioactive cloud 
would be released into the atmosphere. All agricultural production within 
Israel and the entire region would be severely damaged. The rate of cancer 
and birth defects for both human beings and all animals would increase 
drastically, with tragic results. Our water supply could become 
contaminated, here in a land where we have no water to spare. Thousands 
would die immediately, and tens of thousands more with time. Such an 
accident could also trigger an explosion within Dimona of stored nuclear 
waste, with even more horrific harm suffered by the people of this region. 
Israel would never fully recover.

Were a nuclear weapon ever to be used by the Israeli government, we all of 
course risk being bombed in return. Moreover, should any atomic weapon be 
utilized anywhere in our region, even those used by our own Security 
Forces, the nuclear cloud could reach us here as well. Depending on the 
total number of bombs used millions of humans in this region could perish.

This was the devastation, the horror, which I hoped to prevent when I spoke 
out eighteen years ago. I knew my revelations might well cost me my life, 
and they did cost me a great deal of pain. But my motives, my goals, have 
always been the same: the prevention of the use of nuclear weapons, and the 
preservation of hundreds of thousands of human lives. This remains my life 
work.

Eighteen years ago I believed, as I still believe today, that the people of 
Israel, as well as the global community itself, have the right to know of 
the existence of nuclear weapons. This is the only way they can insist upon 
the appropriate development of the peace process here in the Middle East. 
If there was ever an issue requiring openness and democratic debate, this 
is it.

Similarly, the international community can only help broker the peace and 
prevent a catastrophic war if the existence of such weapons are known and 
properly monitored and controlled. The existence of nuclear weapons is a 
matter of global concern, and cannot be considered only a local and private 
matter. By way of example, look at the intensive world effort to curb the 
development of nuclear weapons in Iran and Korea. This is as it should be. 
When it comes to the risk of nuclear disaster, we must all see ourselves as 
citizens of one world.

These are the reasons I spoke out eighteen years ago. I did not seek to 
harm Israel, but rather to warn of an enormous danger. I do not seek to 
harm Israel now. I want to work for world peace and the abolition of 
nuclear weapons. I want the human race to survive.

I have no more secrets to tell and have not set foot in Dimona for more 
than 18 years. I have been out of prison, although not free, for one year. 
Despite the illegal restrictions on my speech, I have again and again 
spoken out against the use of nuclear weapons anywhere and by any nation. I 
have given away no sensitive secrets because I have none. I have not acted 
against the interests of Israel nor do I wish to. I have been investigated 
by the police again and again, and re-arrested twice, but they have found 
nothing. I have done nothing but speak for peace and world safety from a 
nuclear disaster.

It is time for Israel to develop into a true democracy and give the people 
some real voice in our nation's policies, especially in matters which so 
gravely affect our very survival. Already we must worry about the 
earthquake fault line beneath Dimona, and the aging reactors themselves. It 
is not enough for a few politicians to briefly visit the center and simply 
declare it safe.

I invite the government and the people to open up this issue and enter into 
a genuine democratic debate about the safety and peace issues involved.

In closing, I am asking the government to let me go. Let me start my 
personal life over again in full freedom abroad. The time has come to 
respect my rights and to leave this case in the past for good.

Intended for the Knesset Constitution, Law and Judiciary Committee, 16.3.2005.

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Knesset Constitution, Law and Judiciary Committee Cancels Debate of 
Vanunu's Restrictions
Prominent International Delegation Calls on Israel to Cancel the 
Restrictions, Let Vanunu Go Free

The International Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu
16 March 2005

The cancellation of a Knesset committee debate about the severe 
restrictions on nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu's liberty and human 
rights was roundly condemned today at a Jerusalem press conference. 
Prominent international observers of the Vanunu case who had come to 
address the Constitution, Law and Judiciary Committee also spoke out, and 
called for Vanunu's full freedom.

Rayna Moss, an Israeli with the International Campaign to Free Vanunu, 
explained that Knesset Member Issam Makhoul (Hadash) had requested weeks 
ago that the Committee convene to discuss the grave situation regarding 
Vanunu, which was agreed to by Committee Chairman Michael Eitan and 
scheduled for March 16. Makhoul continues to push the Committee to convene 
on this issue.

Moss said, "The cancellation means that one month before the restrictions 
are renewed or cancelled, not one government official has voiced a 
position. The attorney general has not addressed the issue. Security forces 
have not made any public statement and the Israeli Parliament has refused 
to take responsibility over this issue. This is coupled with a frivolous 
statement by three Israeli politicians who spent two hours at the Dimona 
reactor and announced that it was safe. Through both of these events the 
Israeli government is treating the Israeli public as children who can be 
told fairytales. Mordechai Vanunu is ultimately portrayed as the big bad 
wolf who needs to be isolated from society or as the little boy who cries 
the king has no clothes. We refuse to accept fairytales, we refuse to be 
silenced, and we demand Vanunu's freedom."

Mordechai Vanunu spoke about the restrictions that forbid him from leaving 
Israel and rebuilding his life, even though he served his complete 18 year 
prison sentence and there are no new charges against him.

Vanunu said, "I have no more secrets to tell and have not set foot in 
Dimona for more than 18 years. I have been out of prison, although not 
free, for one year. Despite the illegal restrictions on my speech, I have 
again and again spoken out against the use of nuclear weapons anywhere and 
by any nation. I have given away no sensitive secrets because I have none. 
I have not acted against the interests of Israel nor do I wish to. I have 
been investigated by the police again and again, and re-arrested twice, but 
they have found nothing. I have done nothing but speak for peace and world 
safety from a nuclear disaster...

"I did not seek to harm Israel, but rather to warn of an enormous danger. I 
do not seek to harm Israel now. I want to work for world peace and the 
abolition of nuclear weapons. I want the human race to survive."

Vanunu also said, "I'd like to address world leaders here for the Holocaust 
Museum ceremony. They have come to commemorate the Jewish holocaust which 
took place 60 years ago but they must acknowledge that the threat of a 
future holocaust is the nuclear holocaust."

Also speaking at the press conference were Daniel Ellsberg (U.S.A.), author 
and former Pentagon employee who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers; 
attorney Jennifer Harbury (U.S.A.), author and director of the U.U.S.C. 
STOP Torture Campaign; and attorney Fredrik S. Heffermehl (Norway), author 
and Vice President of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms.

The three had travelled to Israel from the United States and Norway on the 
basis of the understanding that they would testify today at the hearing of 
the Knesset Constitution, Law and Judiciary Committee, only to arrive in 
Israel and learn that it had been cancelled.

Daniel Ellsberg explained that he and Vanunu were both the first people in 
their countries to be prosecuted for giving secret information to the 
press. He said, "Mordechai Vanunu has no secret information. He has one 
huge secret which he revealed on April 21 last year - That after 18 years 
of imprisonment and solitary confinement and mistreatment a person can 
still come out sane, articulate, compassionate. This is the secret that no 
regime wants its citizens to know." He added, "Mordechai is a prophet, and 
the scriptures say that prophets are never appreciated in their own country."

In speaking of the need to lift the restrictions against Vanunu, Ellsberg 
stated, "At the time of the American revolution, when we freed ourselves 
from the British empire, we didn't retain any of their laws and 
regulations. The time has come for the state of Israel to also free itself 
from the State of Emergency regulations of the British Empire."

Citing several articles of the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights, U.S. human rights attorney Jennifer Harbury concluded 
that "the restrictions that have been placed upon Mordechai Vanunu 
represent extraordinary infringements of his rights".

Harbury stated, "For the last several years of his imprisonment, Mr. Vanunu 
was permitted to mingle with other prisoners. In addition, he has now been 
out of prison for nearly a year, and despite the restrictions, has 
courageously spoken publicly again and again for nuclear abolition and 
human rights. If he possessed any additional information, or if he wished 
to harm Israel in any way, he has had numerous opportunities to do so. Yet 
he has not. Time itself has proven the government claims of security risks 
are frivolous. Keeping him here does not change the equation....

"By refusing to let Mr. Vanunu go in peace to start a new life after so 
much suffering, Israel casts itself as both cruel and vindictive. He is not 
safe here and the authorities have contributed to this problem by vilifying 
him unjustly. Moreover, Israel does not come to this matter with clean 
hands. Mr. Vanunu was illegally kidnapped, battered, drugged and then 
subjected to extraordinary psychological torture for over 11 years. There 
has been no justice for any of these wrongs. The time has come for the 
government, too, to set its house straight by showing reason and balance here."

Fredrik Heffermehl said, "Avoiding discourse and discussion does not remove 
the problems - openness and discussion can help us find ways out. That was 
the idea behind Vanunu´s action. The time is ripe for the Israeli public to 
consider why so many people all over the world consider Vanunu as the 
leading Israeli in the worldwide political struggle against nuclear 
extinction."

The restrictions that were imposed on Vanunu (prohibiting him from 
traveling abroad, contacting foreign citizens and media, and controlling 
his movement inside Israel) severely curtail his civil and human rights. 
They are based on the 1945 State of Emergency Regulations, first introduced 
in Mandatory Palestine by the British Mandate and since then they have been 
continually renewed by the Israeli Parliament (Knesset). The State of 
Emergency Regulations enable the State to penalize people without trial, 
and can be renewed indefinitely. In July 2004 Israel's Supreme Court 
rejected Vanunu's appeal of the restrictions.

The restrictions will next be reviewed on April 21, the one year 
anniversary of Vanunu's release. At that time, an international delegation 
organized by the International Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu will come 
to Israel to call for lifting the restrictions and allowing Mordechai 
Vanunu to leave Israel, as he wishes.

Contact information:

In Israel: Rayna Moss: Tel. 972-50 -7368236
email: legalese at netvision.net.il

In the USA: Felice Cohen-Joppa, Tel/Fax 520-323-8697
email: freevanunu at mindspring.com

In Britain: Ernest Rodker, Tel. +44-20-8672-9698
e-mail: campaign at vanunu.freeserve.co.uk

In Norway: Fredrik Heffermehl
Tel. +47-2244 8003 Fax: +47-2244 7616
email: fredpax at online.no

www.vanunu.com www.vanunu.co.uk www.vanunu.org

Felice Cohen-Joppa
Coordinato,r U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu
POB 43384 Tucson, AZ 85733
Phone/Fax 520-323-8697
freevanunu at mindspring.com
www.nonviolence.org/vanunu

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Matthias Reichl

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