In 2006, Yossi Melman wrote:
"Vanunu was one of the very few prisoners in Israeli history whose sentence was not reduced for good behavior, nor was he given a single day's furlough. For many years, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement, which nearly drove him insane. Two years ago, he was released and asked to leave Israel. That's when the vengeful machinery of the defense establishment - Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, the Shin Bet, and Yehiel Horev, head of security for the defense establishment - went into action. They imposed a series of limitations on Vanunu, restricting his freedom of movement and his right to social contacts. The worst of these restrictions is the ban on him leaving Israel: "Morally and legally, and from a democratic perspective, it is intolerable that someone who has been punished should be punished over and over again for the same sin for which he served such a heavy sentence - the man's ongoing harassment - is entirely motivated by the defense establishment's hunger for vengeance over the way he outwitted it." [4]
The restrictions that
have subjected Vanunu to 24/7 surveillance [his movements, phone calls and
emails] ever since 21 April 2004 come from the Emergency Defense Regulations,
which were implemented by Britain against Palestinians and Jews after World War
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."
Israel also kidnapped Vanunu in 1986, but Article 9 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states: "No one shall he subjected
to arbitrary arrest or detention", including abduction of a person by
agents of one state to another state.
In 1987, Vanunu was convicted of "Aggravated Espionage, High Treason and Assisting the Enemy."
In May 2011, he petitioned the court to honor its own law and revoke his citizenship:
Vanunu Mordechai asking, CANCEL Revoking my Citizenship-MAY 5-2011.
The establishment of Israel's statehood was contingent upon upholding the UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS and as a Member State; America is responsible to hold ALL other Member States accountable:
Article 13.2: Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.1: Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
Article 19: 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.
I have petitioned my government on this topic many times via email, fax and phone calls, but neither President Obama or Secretary of State Clinton have responded in support of human rights; and thus this document also serves as a public petition demanding justice in the spirit of an old widowed crone who lived in a certain town with a judge who cared nothing about justice, people or God.
But that old widowed
crone persisted to publicly plea as she knocked on the Judges chamber door,
"Grant me justice" - but we do not know justice for what was she
asking for.
The judge ignored her until she became such a PIA [pain in the ass] he finally muttered
to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or care a hoot about this old
crone, she has become such a PIA, I will give into her, just to get her to
leave me alone!" [Paraphrased from a story Jesus told in Luke 18
1-5]
The longer Israel denies Vanunu the right to leave the state and fade into the world, the larger his legend will grow; but a free Vanunu will reap Israel good PR and this reporters mission to tell the story of Vanunu until he is free will also be accomplished.
Most persistently yours,
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