On April 10, 2009, Billy Briggs reported from occupied east Jerusalem that Mordechai Vanunu informed him, "I was walking here this morning and a car drew slowly up alongside me. There were four men in the car wearing sunglasses. One of them shouted at me…the car followed me…the man call out again in Hebrew. 'You are garbage,' he said. But I kept on walking and ignoring him." [1]
When Vanunu entered the foyer of his rundown backpacker's hotel the men "leapt from the vehicle, flashed ID cards and ushered him into the back seat. Residents and traders, many of whom know the famous Israeli, stood and watched his public humiliation.
"They took me to the local station and warned me not to go to Bethlehem this year to celebrate Christmas. They said they'd be watching me and that I should also not speak to journalists or foreigners." [Ibid]
The Shin Bet has developed a ritual of publicly harassing Vanunu at Christmas and Easter time because he is a Christian convert; an unpardonable sin for particular people.
When the whistle blower of Israel's WMD Program emerged into the light of day after 18 years in a windowless tomb sized cell on April 21, 2004 he announced:
"I am not harming Israel. I am not interested in Israel. I want to tell you something very important. I suffered here 18 years because I am a Christian, because I was baptized into Christianity. If I was a Jew I wouldn't have all this suffering here in isolation for 18 years. Only because I was a Christian man."
On December 19, 2004 over 40 journalists, seven T.V. cameras and a SRO crowd gathered for a press conference in East Jerusalem to listen to Mordechai Vanunu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire and Issam Makhoul, a Member of the Knesset, who said:
"Only those who struggle for total disarmament of the Middle East, including Israel, of all weapons of mass destruction - nuclear, biological and chemical - has the moral right to condemn Iran for its nuclear project. The countries that equip Israel with the means to launch nuclear warheads, that supply it with submarines and enable it to develop its missiles, do not have the moral right to condemn the Iranian nuclear project. Anyone who opposes the Iranian project must also oppose the Israeli nuclear arsenal.
"Along with Mordechai Vanunu, I and other Israeli activists refuse to be silenced. We continue to demand, that our government reveal the truth about its WMDs, enable a full international inspection of all WMD sites and dismantle its arsenal. To this end, we are currently involved in organizing an international conference on a nuclear-free Mediterranean area, to be held in April 2005. This date marks the first anniversary of Vanunu's release from prison. This date will hopefully mark the beginning of an anti-nuclear movement in Israel.
"Mordechai Vanunu is not a traitor, he is an Israeli hero. The nuclear bomb does not protect Israel, it endangers Israel."
Mairead Corrigan Maguire urged the Israeli government to free Vanunu from the restrictions that have held him hostage in Israel and to "let Mordechai come home for Christmas."
When the press asked Vanunu why he refuses to speak to the Israeli media in Hebrew, Vanunu answered in Hebrew: "The government of Israel refuses to recognize my human rights. I am prohibited from speaking to foreigners. I say to the Israeli public: I am not your enemy. All I want is for Israel to abolish its nuclear weapons, to respect the rights of the Palestinian people and to let me go free."
Continuing in English, Vanunu stated, that he has no further secrets to reveal about Israel's nuclear reactor and that he demands the right to express his anti-nuclear views, to speak freely to the media and to write his prison memoirs. All he wants for Christmas, Vanunu said, was to be free to leave Israel and celebrate with his adoptive family in the USA. [2]
Vanunu still hasn't made it home for Christmas, and in fact was arrested on two Christmas Eve's:
In 2004, Vanunu attempted to celebrate his first Christmas Eve Mass as a Christian in the Little Town of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, which is in Occupied Territory. Instead of mass, Israel arrested him and Vanunu spent Christmas Eve behind bars and was charged with "attempting to leave the county." [The distance is less than five miles.]
On Dec. 25, 2007, Vanunu wrote:
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
