After spending 18 years in an Israeli prison for blowing the whistle on Israel's secret program to develop atomic bombs, Israel, taking its cues from the old Soviet Union and the United States, refuses to let this man leave the hell that is Israel.
If someone wants to leave a country, he or she should leave, right? Wrong.
Israel still refuses to allow Vanunu to leave.Vanunu's 18 years in an Israeli prison, most of it spent in solitary confinement in a small, windowless cell, came to a temporary end when he was released in April 2004. [Think about that, 18 years in a small cell.]
Now he is appealing a further six-month sentence handed down on his new charges. As Jerry Levin writes:
Specifically he is charged with:
1) maintaining contacts or exchanging information with foreign citizens especially journalists, and
2) coming within 500 meters of places from which it is possible to leave Israel, including the West Bank.
The charges detail 21 interviews with "foreign journalists" and "chat room" conversations and with trying to go to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 2004.
What the hell is Israel trying to do?
Letters and cash can be sent to:
[Note: Don't send cash! Israel holds up V's mail for months at a time!
IN USA checks for his defense can be mailed to:
Postal Credit Union
8499 Tamarack Road
Woodbury, MN 55125
Payable to:
Account name/Payable To: Trust For Mordechai Vanunu
Account Number: 8785737S1]
-Mordechai Vanunu
Waiting In East Jerusalem
To Be Free, To Leave
P.O. Box 20102
Salah Adin St' - post office
East Jerusalem 91384
Writes Vanunu:
I WANT TO BE FREE.
I WANT TO LEAVE THIS COUNTRY.
21 YEARS IN ISRAEL PRISON IS ENOUGH.
Mordechai Vanunu's site is at: http://www.serve.com/vanunu/ .
He is appealing the new sentance in September, assuming he lives that long.
###
