Vanunu's
'Secret'
By
Eileen Fleming
21 December,
2007
Countercurrents.org
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 USA civilian
journalist would never have met him or taped video interviews with him
in 2005 and 2006 which are freely streaming @ http://www.wearewideawake.org/
But, Israel
instead has 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:
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
During Vanunu's
18 years in jail, he lived in a tomb sized cell without windows and
was psychologically and emotionally tortured. For the first two years
Vanunu was deprived of sleep and watched on a camera. A bright light
in his cell shone constantly and when ever he closed his eyes, a guard
would immediately enter and shine a brighter light into his face and
claim they were just checking if he had committed suicide; yet!
On 9/18/04
in London, Yoko Ono awarded Vanunu a peace prize founded in memory of
and in the spirit of John Lennon's "Give Me Some Truth" released
in 1971.
All I want
is the truth
Just gimme some truth
I've had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
And what
is truth?
In December 1998, the Anglican Rev. David B. Smith, of Australia, compiled,
formatted and published LETTERS FROM SOLITARY: Letters from Mordechai
Vanunu to David Smith written during his 11 years of solitary confinement.
Reverend
Smith wrote:
I first met
Morde late on a Friday night. We were running a little coffee-shop-type
setup outside the church building in Kings Cross and Morde just wandered
in...His English was not terrific, but we managed some pretty serious
conversation at our first meeting. Morde had recently completed studies
at university. I had completed university just before entering seminary.
Morde had been studying philosophy. I had just completed my honours
degree in philosophy! Morde’s interest had been in existentialism.
Mine had been also! Morde’s chief figure of interest was Nietzsche
– the belligerent German atheist. Mine was Kierkegaard –
the eccentric Christian preacher. Morde had read Kierkegaard, and my
first introduction to Kierkegaard had been in a course comparing him
to Nietzsche. We found we had plenty to talk about.
It was a
curious scene that developed that night. Two figures in the middle of
the Cross, locked in passionate discussion about theories of meaning
and existence. In Morde’s broken English we managed to discuss
Nietzsche’s concept of ‘staring into the abyss’ of
your life and embracing your despair, and Kierkegaard’s optimistic
alternative – throwing yourself into the abyss and finding that
the abyss is God and is able to support you.
At the time
my own faith was deeply intertwined with these concepts. For Morde though,
I don’t think I realized exactly how much was at stake in his
thinking until much further down the track. Some months later Morde
would embrace the Christian faith, and let go of much of his former
life. At an academic level he was also very self-consciously embracing
Kierkegaard and rejecting Nietzsche. This is significant, for Kierkegaard
was always on about taking ‘risks’, or ‘leaps of faith’,
as he would call them.
The one complete
work of Kierkegaard that had been translated into Hebrew, and which
Morde had read, was his eulogy on Abraham, entitled ‘Fear and
Trembling’. In it Kierkegaard reflects on Abraham’s call
to go and sacrifice his son Isaac. How can this be right, when it seems
to be a betrayal of his family, and is contrary to his reason and even
to his conscience? Yet Abraham knows that this is what he has been called
to by God, and so he sets out upon his task, albeit with ‘fear
and trembling’.
Morde would
make his own leap of faith. He would come to the front of St John’s
church and say out loud ‘Now I give myself to God. Now I do what
I must do.’ True to the Kierkegaardian spirit, Morde made his
decision alone...
...It has
been extraordinary to read and hear some of the things people have said
about Morde – that he was a ‘professional spy’, a
‘trained terrorist’, a ‘brilliant con-man’.
How much time did such people spend actually trying to get to know the
guy? ‘For God’s sake’ I feel like shouting ‘this
man is my friend. You obviously don’t know him at all.’
As clever
as Morde was (and is) at an academic level, when it came to the subtle
art of spying, Morde was downright naive! I’ll never forget the
incident at the airport where Morde misplaced the bag with the entire
collection of Dimona photos! Where had he put it? It was found at the
top of the escalators, where he had left it when he went to check in!
Not exactly the behaviour of a professional secret agent.
The naivete
was evident too in the matter of the money he was supposed to be paid.
"They say they are going to pay me something for the photos"
he told me one Sunday morning. He added "I will give the money
to the church here and it will help in the ministry."
On 27th February
1987, Vanunu wrote:
...now I
know that my task in this world is to devote myself for working and
helping other people, and my task here in Israel is to show that I was
born Jewish but I find that JC is our savior. This will not make my
life easy here but this faith will keep me strong and make my suffering
bearable.......Yet I am not allowed to see a priest. They cannot succeed
to take from me one of the most important human rights in a democratic
country. I wrote a letter to the Bishop Samir Kafity (Anglican Bishop
of Jerusalem) and I asked him to send me one of the priests.......Next
week is the trial. I am not worried or afraid because I know what I
did and I know who I am. I believe that what happens to me is God’s
will, and I will wait for my release.
.......I
don’t know a lot about what is going on outside the prison because
they keep me isolated. Even my lawyer I see only one time a week, and
my brothers every two weeks for one half hour. My parents came to see
me one time; they didn’t like my faith. I think someone sent them
to me because I know my parents. I am a Christian; they will not come
to see me again. I have sorrow for them, but as Jesus said, who wants
me must leave his parents and follow me. My brothers are not concerned
about my faith. Everyone wants to know why I became a Christian and
I send them to learn of Kierkegaard’s philosophy. There I find
love and Jesus, and everyone has to open his heart to find this love,
and then Jesus will be wherever we might be.......
On 5 June
1987, Vanunu wrote:
…I
am spending 24 hours every day alone in a cell reading the Bible and
other books. Praying every morning and evening, and trying to know more
of God’s words. Here I am alone in my faith but by reading the
New Testament I feel encouraged, and it gives me strength. The life
of the Lord JC is the way I am following, and his words to the Jews
are what I can say to the Jews here today…I feel that the spirit
of God is with me all the time, and now here he keeps me alive and gives
me the power to stand in this country, and to say the Lord JC is the
truth…
On November
27, 1987, Vanunu wrote:
......But
now I know that all that they want is to break my faith, my soul, to
separate me from my brothers in Christ. So I have to be more concerned
about what they are doing. And be stronger in my faith and keep my faith
deep in my heart with me here in my small cell......God called me to
know him and to be his servant and I accept his mission. All what I
have done is from my conscience......I did my decision alone by the
voice of God who called me in my heart. And the same thing happened
with my action against nuclear weapons. From the beginning it has come
to me from my belief from inside - my values, my respect for the human
being and the human right. And of course everyone knows and understands
all about nuclear weapons - the new holocaust that is hanging over our
lives.......
On 28 January,
1989, Vanunu wrote:
...Most of
my time here I am using to be very strong in my faith, by reading the
New Testament every day in a loud voice and praying......Now I am waiting
for my next appeal to the Supreme Court…I was not a spy. And the
people here and in all the world have the right to know what their Government
has been hiding from them in the nuclear issues. I am not guilty. I
did my duty. If I did not have this information, I could not publish
it, but God chose those who will do his mission. I believe that I served
God’s mission…to do peace, to make the people aware of the
nuclear holocaust…No one can change this truth and no one can
change my faith and my mind…
In June 2006, Vanunu told me, "When I decided to expose Israel's
nuclear weapons I acted out of conscience and to warn the world to prevent
a nuclear holocaust...The Dimona is 46 years old; reactors last 25 to
30 years. The Dimona has never been inspected and Israel has never signed
the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty; but all the Arab states have...Twenty
years ago when I worked there they only produced when the air was blowing
towards Jordan ten miles away. No one knows what is happening now...
"The only way to peace is peace; the only way is non-violence.
The only answer to Israeli nuclear weapons, their aggression, occupation
and oppression, the wall and refugee camps is to answer them with truth
and a peace-full voice. When I became the spy for the world I did it
all for the people of the world. If governments do not report the truth,
if media does not report the truth, all we can do is follow our conscience...Israel
is the only country in the Middle East where America can right now find
WMD's. America can also find where basic human rights have been denied
Christians, right here in Israel...
"My
Christian conversion was also considered as treason and led to me receiving
more time in jail than any murderer has ever served. The Israelis have
this very beautiful article about freedom and liberty but they want
to destroy anyone who criticizes them for revealing the truth to the
world. The world must look and see what kind of democracy Israel is
when one speaks out the truth. Israel is not a democracy unless you
are a Jew."
Anyone who speaks with Vanunu for even a few minutes will understand
that the 'secret' Vanunu has that can harm Israel is bad PR and the
example of what happens to truth tellers when governments substitute
paranoia for law.
Eileen
Fleming, is the Reporter and Editor
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Comment
Policy
Digg
it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands
of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page
of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an
vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So,
as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.