International League Section of the Fe de ration Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme, Assoc. Europe enne pour la De fense des Droits de l'Homme akkreditiert mit C Status bei UNO, Europarat und UNESCO of Human Rights in the spirit of Carl von Ossietzky
Carl-von-Ossietzky-Medal for Mordechai Vanunu
Award Ceremony, 11am, 12th December 2010, in Berlin
For over a quarter of a century, Mordechai Vanunu has been engaging in the struggle for total nuclear disarmament, for transparent democracy and for peace among nations with outstanding civil courage and fortitude.
He first became internationally known in 1986, when he released information to a British newspaper about the Negev Nuclear Research Centre operating near Dimona in the Negev desert that Israel had built in the 1950s and 60s. After examining this information, a British nuclear physicist and an American nuclear arms specialist concluded that plutonium produced and processed at this atomic plant would enable Israel to produce between 100 and 200 atomic weapons.
Vanunu had worked as a technician in the atomic plant for nine years. He decided to make the information public because he had been alarmed by the amounts of radioactive plutonium being produced in Israel. He had wanted to to inform the Israeli and the international public, especially as the Israeli leadership had left its own people completely in the dark about its atomic programme, an unacceptable situation in a democratic state.
Even before the information had been published, Vanunu was lured to Rome by a female Mossad agent at the end of September 1986, where he was kidnapped and transported to Ashdod. In a strictly secret judicial proceeding, a military court sentenced him to 18 years imprisonment for high treason and espionage in March 1988.
During his confinement, he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times, and in 1987 he was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize. More awards were to follow.
On April 21st 2004, Vanunu was released from prison, having served the full term, 11 years of which were spent in the solitary confinement of a small cell.
Yet he was released under strict conditions that show total contempt for universal human rights: Vanunu is, amongst other things, not allowed to leave Israel and is forbidden contact with foreign embassies or journalists. He is obliged to inform the authorities of all his movements.
Despite being confined in Israel, where he has been denied any freedom of movement and communication, Mordechai Vanunu has nevertheless managed to give countless interviews, for which he has been repeatedly imprisoned.
The most recent case was on May 10th of this year, when he was sentenced to three months for giving an interview to a foreign correspondent.
A hearing on Vanunu's illegal confinement in Israel has been scheduled at the Israeli Supreme Court for 9 am on 11th October 2010.
Vanunu's courageous conduct unquestionably recalls Carl von Ossietsky's undaunted resistance against armament and war during the Weimar Republic.
In awarding Mordechai Vanunu, the International League for Human Rights would like to draw international attention to the fact that he is still being held prisoner in Israel, deprived of elementary civil and human rights, although he has already served his prison sentence in full, and regardless of the fact that his information is now a quarter of a century old.
Likewise, 65 years after the first atomic bombs were dropped by the USA on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Vanunu's reminder of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons of mass destruction, for man and nature, should be strengthened, and his relentless efforts towards their worldwide abolition given continued support.
Internationale Liga fu r Menschenrechte Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte - Greifswalder Str. 4, 10405 Berlin, Tel. 396 21 22, Fax 396 21 47, E-mail: vorstand@ilmr.de.
Web:
http://www.ilmr.de
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Vanunu Mordechai Press release Oct' 5,2010 for receiving the Carl Von Ossietzky medal 2010
Today Oct. 5 is a historic day in my life and for wistleblowers world wide. On this day in 1986, I fulfilled my mission that I took on myself to inform all the world- not governments nor spies organization- but every human being who can read about Israel's nuclear weapon arsenal as it was published by the Sunday Times, which put Mordechai Vanunu's story on its front page under the headline: "Revealed -- the secrets of Israel's nuclear arsenal."
For this I was sentenced to 18 years prison in Israel, 12 of them in isolation, and after the release 6 more years without freedom of speech and freedom of movements in Israel. I was following the spirit of Ossietztky without even knowing or having read about him. This proves that we, the people, have the same mind, same spirit, same beliefs in human rights and freedom and fight for the rights of the people everywhere. The first step is to give the people the information and let them chose the right direction.
Ossietzky did not survive the brutality of prison. I survived, and I am ready to continue to speak on behalf of all the wistleblowers. Knowledge is the power of every human being.
I hope Israel will now end all my suffering 18 years in prison and 6 more years of restrictions not to travel, so I can travel all over the world.
I want to thank International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) for the courage to give me the Von Ossietztky medal even if I receive it after 24 years. I hope this time I will be free to come to Berlin and speak also on behalf of Ossietztky in the city.
All the best,Thank You.VMJC
FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM I NEED NOW.
VANUNU MORDECHAI John Crossman.
KIDNAPPED IN ROME SEP' 30 TH'-1986.
18 YEARS IN ISRAEL PRISON.OUT IN APR'-21-2004.
6 YEAR Waiting In East Jerusalem. AUG' 2010 waiting in Tel Aviv-To Be Free,To Leave http://www.youtube.com/user/vanunuvmjc?feature=mhum
http:/www.vanunu.com
Eileen Fleming, Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Staff Member of Salem-news.com
A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com and Dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" and
http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming
Only in Solidarity do "we have it in our power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine
