Vanunu's 'Secret'
eileen fleming
On January 8, 2008, Mordechai Vanunu's appeal begins fighting a six month jail sentence for speaking to foreign media in 2004, after his release from 18 years in jail, most of it in solitary confinement. Israel maintains that the little man who exposed its WMD Program in 1986 is still a 'security' threat and that he has more secrets he has yet to reveal.
During Vanunu's captivity in East Jerusalem, he has spoken with hundreds of internationals, but he is no longer talking to media. When I last saw him in July 2007 and asked him why, he told me, "All the interviews I have given haven't helped me."
If Israel had allowed Vanunu to leave Israel in 2004 as he desired this committed Christian and civilian journalist would never have met him. But Israel held him under the draconian British Mandate Emergency Regulations in Jerusalem, which among many restrictions, forbid him to speak to any foreigners.
After WW II, Attorney Yaccov Shapiro, who later became Israel's Minister Of Justice, described the Emergency Defense Regulations as "unparalleled in any civilized country: there were no such laws in Nazi Germany."[ N.S. Ateek, Justice and Only Justice p.34]
In March, 2006, Vanunu informed me, "This administration tells me I am not allowed to speak to foreigners, the Media, and the world. But I do because that is how I prove my true humanity to the world. My freedom of speech trial began January 25, 2006 for speaking to the media, the same day as the Palestinian elections."
The USA MSM has been missing in action all during Vanunu's historic year and a half long freedom of speech trial. But, in 2005 and 2006, Vanunu spoke with me on video in the spirit of Article 19 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, which Israel's statehood was contingent upon upholding:
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