"How can President Bush remain silent on Israel's nuclear power when he has not only illegally invaded an Arab state for allegedly harbouring nuclear weapons and condemned Iran for the same ambitions, but also praised--along with Tony Blair's government--Colonel Gaddafi of Libya for abandoning his nuclear pretensions? If the Arab states are being "defanged"--always supposing they had any real fangs in the first place--why should Israel not be "de-nuclearised"? Why can't the United States apply the same standards to Israel as it does to the Arabs? Or why, for that matter, can't Israel apply the same standards to itself that it demands of its Arab enemies?"
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5222
The legend of Vanunu continues to grow:
An intrepid twenty-one year old German was arrested on Christmas Eve 2007 just for having dinner with Vanunu.
Five days prior, Dana from the USA met Vanunu in the Old City and walked to the American Colony with him for lunch. Dana informed this civilian journalist via telephone, "At the table next to us was the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem and a lot of photos were being taken of him. I wasn't concerned about myself, but I was afraid to meet Vanunu for his sake; that he would get arrested. I told him this and he just shrugged. I do believe he was arrested on Christmas Eve just because he is a Christian."
Also unafraid of speaking with Vanunu are the "Ten to twenty foreigners [who speak with Vanunu] every day in the streets, in the restaurants, in churches; some times long meetings."-excerpted from an email from Vanunu.
This civilian journalist phoned Vanunu on February 12th to ask him what he thought about the two homicide bombers who blew up six miles from the underground Dimona nuclear plant on Feb. 5th. Reuters originally reported that a source said the "Army of Palestine" wing of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from Gaza carried out the attack in Dimona along with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Within hours it was then reported that it was two Hamas from Hebron. Israeli authorities denied the nuclear plant was the target and not one journalist questioned it.
Vanunu said, "We don't know if they were Hamas or Fatah, but they got as far as they could get to the Dimona. The Dimona is very heavily guarded, and only another state could blow it up, not terrorists."
Vanunu hasn't set foot in the Dimona in twenty-two years, [International Inspectors never have] yet Israel continues to insist they cannot let him speak with foreigners or leave Israel, because Israeli authorities claim he still has a secret he has not yet told.
Vanunu has repeatedly responded, "All the secrets I had were published in 1989 in an important book, by Frank Barnaby, The Invisible Bomb: Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East."
Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Israel ratified and is obliged to uphold, stipulates: "everyone [has] the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence" and that "everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own".
"Israel is bound by international law not to impose arbitrary restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu, including on his right to travel within the country or abroad, his right to peaceful association with others and his right to express his opinions" - Amnesty International Press Release of April 19, 2004 and July 2, 2007.
"For 18 years in prison I felt like a man at a train station, waiting for my train. I lived in a six by nine foot space without a window for 18 years. Every day I would get up, get dressed, put on my shoes, look at the same four walls and wait for that train that never came…Now I live in a nine by nine space with four walls, I have a window to the Mount of Olives and the street. But, I live like a tourist without even a TV in a cheap hotel and all I want to do is leave Jerusalem. I am no longer waiting for a train. Now I am at the airport terminal waiting for my plane."
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. -Article 19, UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5222
The legend of Vanunu continues to grow:
An intrepid twenty-one year old German was arrested on Christmas Eve 2007 just for having dinner with Vanunu.
Five days prior, Dana from the USA met Vanunu in the Old City and walked to the American Colony with him for lunch. Dana informed this civilian journalist via telephone, "At the table next to us was the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem and a lot of photos were being taken of him. I wasn't concerned about myself, but I was afraid to meet Vanunu for his sake; that he would get arrested. I told him this and he just shrugged. I do believe he was arrested on Christmas Eve just because he is a Christian."
This civilian journalist phoned Vanunu on February 12th to ask him what he thought about the two homicide bombers who blew up six miles from the underground Dimona nuclear plant on Feb. 5th. Reuters originally reported that a source said the "Army of Palestine" wing of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from Gaza carried out the attack in Dimona along with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Within hours it was then reported that it was two Hamas from Hebron. Israeli authorities denied the nuclear plant was the target and not one journalist questioned it.
Vanunu said, "We don't know if they were Hamas or Fatah, but they got as far as they could get to the Dimona. The Dimona is very heavily guarded, and only another state could blow it up, not terrorists."
Vanunu hasn't set foot in the Dimona in twenty-two years, [International Inspectors never have] yet Israel continues to insist they cannot let him speak with foreigners or leave Israel, because Israeli authorities claim he still has a secret he has not yet told.
Vanunu has repeatedly responded, "All the secrets I had were published in 1989 in an important book, by Frank Barnaby, The Invisible Bomb: Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East."
Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Israel ratified and is obliged to uphold, stipulates: "everyone [has] the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence" and that "everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own".
"Israel is bound by international law not to impose arbitrary restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu, including on his right to travel within the country or abroad, his right to peaceful association with others and his right to express his opinions" - Amnesty International Press Release of April 19, 2004 and July 2, 2007.
"For 18 years in prison I felt like a man at a train station, waiting for my train. I lived in a six by nine foot space without a window for 18 years. Every day I would get up, get dressed, put on my shoes, look at the same four walls and wait for that train that never came…Now I live in a nine by nine space with four walls, I have a window to the Mount of Olives and the street. But, I live like a tourist without even a TV in a cheap hotel and all I want to do is leave Jerusalem. I am no longer waiting for a train. Now I am at the airport terminal waiting for my plane."
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. -Article 19, UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
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