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BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trail and My life as a Muckraker Chapter 1:
And so it began"
"If you shut up the truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way."- Emile Zola
A few days before my first of seven journeys to Israel Palestine, a Palestinian American friend warned me, "Don't visit Vanunu, if you see him; don't speak to him. He's not allowed to speak to foreigners and you could cause him trouble."
I responded, "OK, I won't track him down, but Jerusalem is a small town and if our paths cross, I will speak to him. What kind of government is that, that will tell a human being who they can and cannot talk with?"
It was while researching for my first book-KEEP HOPE ALIVE- in 2004, that I stumbled upon Mordechai Vanunu's incredible story and wrote him into a chapter; and met him a few months after.
In the Chapter: "Thanksgiving Eve, 1987" Dr. Jake Hunter, a fictional character says:
"I have yet to read or heard a word from the American press about Vanunu who had worked in a very compartmentalized position in the secret underground Dimona nuclear research center in the Negev. The nuclear plant had a sign outside claiming it was a Textile factory and it seems that when Vanunu finally realized he was involved in the horrific work of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, he shot two rolls of film inside of the restricted areas. Seems security was very lax and this low level tech was able to obtain the keys in the shower room that opened the doors to what Israel has not admitted to.
"Vanunu quit the
job and leaves Israel and carried around the undeveloped film for nearly a year
as he traveled throughout Europe. He ended up in Sydney, Australia and
converted to Christianity. A few weeks after he shared his story with a British
reporter and Vanunu and the reporter returned to London. While the London
Sunday Times was verifying his story, Vanunu mysteriously disappeared. The
photos proved the fact that Israel had become a major nuclear power, but not a
word has been heard from my government or press!
"The Sunday Times reports this incredible news that Israel's underground
plutonium plant has material for two hundred nuclear warheads of advanced
design, but not a word have I read about it or heard from the US media! It
makes me wonder about all the iron curtains the media and government have
raised as a shield from the truth."
Chapter 2: Irish Tempers
"We all need a psychiatrist, but we cannot afford one, so we do activism."-Ashraf Abu Moch, Israeli Palestinian, ICAHD Volunteer.
Today is Saint Patrick's Day, 2010. I am 100% USA with Irish Catholic, Polish Jew and Ukrainian DNA. I was born in Greenwich Village in 1954, a second child amongst three brothers in Levittown, Long Island. For the last four decades I have been a creature of the deep south; the last dozen on ten acres of paradise atop a Florida aquifer, nestled amongst an orange grove, pine tree forest, lake and pond. My degree is in nursing but my vocation is writing, and I have been to Israel Palestine seven times since June 2005. One reason for this book is because I am biased of the side of the voiceless and marginalized. Another reason is, I am in solidarity with Tom Paine:
"Soon after I had published the pamphlet "Common Sense" [on Feb. 14, 1776] in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion... The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."
