No mo' woe.

MEET HIM: Mordechai Vanunu the 21st Century Jeremiah!

Excerpted from "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American Girl’s
Life in Occupied Territory"

Chapter 7: BROTHER V

Just before my first journey to Israel and Palestine in June 2005, a Palestinian American warned me, “Don’t visit Vanunu, if you see him; don’t speak to him. He’s not allowed to speak to foreigners and you could cause him trouble.”

I responded, “OK, I won’t track him down, but Jerusalem is a small town and if our paths cross, I will speak to him. What kind of government is that, that will tell a human being who they can and cannot talk with?”

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Israel agreed to uphold in 1948, affirms that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression…to receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

In the 1980’s Mordechai Vanunu, a secular Jew held a low tech position in the underground Dimona WMD Plant in the Negev. When Vanunu had a crisis of conscience about being a cog in the making of WMD’s he obtained the keys to restricted areas that were left in the shower room and then shot two rolls of film before resigning from Dimona. He left the country but did not develop the film until eight months later while in Sydney, Australia.

While in Sydney, Vanunu found employment as a cab driver and began attending the social justice St. John Cross Anglican Church where he was baptized a Christian. Shortly thereafter, he met Peter Hounam, a journalist for London’s Sunday Times. After Vanunu shared his story and photos, Peter flew Vanunu to London for ‘safe keeping’ and the Time’s began to check out the story with experts in the nuclear field. This took more days than Vanunu had patience to bear in solitude and out of boredom Vanunu ventured onto the streets of London and met an American named Cindy. He had no clue she worked for the Mossad.

Before the Sunday Times printed the story and photos, the London Mirror, a tabloid printed Vanunu’s photo along with their version of the story without ever interviewing him. Fearing for his life in London, and because Cindy offered him a safe haven in Rome at her sisters home, Vanunu flew to Rome with Cindy. Immediately upon entering the apartment, Vanunu was hit on the head, drugged, bound and flung upon an Israeli cargo ship heading home. The Sunday Times broke their story just as Vanunu disappeared.

While being transported to his closed door trial, Vanunu had been inspired to write on his palm; “HIJACKED” and the Rome flight number he had been on. This emboldened move inflamed the Israeli government and Vanunu was shielded from the world until his release on April 21, 2004.

Vanunu paid for telling the world the truth that Israel had gone nuclear with 18 years in jail, most of it in solitary. Although freed in 2004, he has lived in East Jerusalem under the Emergency Defense Regulations which were implemented first by Britain against Palestinians and Jews after World War II. The British Mandate has expired but the draconian restrictions of the British Mandate’s Emergency Defense Regulations have not. 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.”

I did not cross paths with Vanunu for the first time, until the third Tuesday in June which was five days before I returned to the USA. I had spent a most horrific day in Hebron-the most painful experience in my life. Hebron is where 450 Israeli settlers are protected by 3,000 IDF. Above the narrow winding stoned streets a thick deeply sagging netting is strung for protection from all the huge rocks, shovels, electronic equipment, furniture and all manner of debris that have been flung onto it by the settlers in hopes it will give way and hit any Palestinian who is passing underneath it.

Many of the formerly Palestinian homes in Hebron have graffiti such as “GAS THE ARABS” and Stars of David painted upon them. I felt like I had entered into every movie set and photograph I had ever seen of the ghettos during World War II.

When I returned to my room at the Ambassador Hotel that afternoon I had no intention of going back out. But the second I got out of the shower, the phone rang and it was Tony from Ramallah, whom I ‘met’ through the Palestinian Christian Yahoo Group. Tony just happened to be in Jerusalem that day seeing a Doctor and he invited me to dinner. We walked towards the Old City in search of a restaurant and on our way was St. George Cathedral where Vanunu had been living. I suggested we stop in and if Vanunu were there we could invite him along. As we entered the courtyard, Vanunu was leaving for a meeting. I imagine if we had arrived a few minutes later we would have missed him completely.

But, that chance meeting led to my opportunity to spend a few hours with Vanunu over the next few days. I was curious as to what kind of a kid he had been and why he became a Christian. In all honesty, Vanunu got the wrong idea about my curiosity, and I admit I can be naive and a bit clueless. I hadn’t given it a thought that he had been locked up for 18 years and anything female would arouse his interest. His English is also very limited and he did not comprehend my repeated declarative statement: “I am married! I am very married!”

But, I am brutally honest and persistent, and Vanunu did finally get the message that I meant the end of that topic of conversation. And so, over the next few days we shared a few dinners and went for a walk up the Mount of Olives and he readily answered all the questions I had at that time. We are sister and brother in Christ, but I cannot claim we are yet friends, for communication remains a challenge. When one is physically present to Vanunu, he can be charming and warm or aloof and withdrawn. I have learned that attempting to communicate with him via email is impossible, for he responds sporadically or not at all. When I visited him in March 2006, I asked him why did he ignore my email suggestions and he responded, “You are bossing me around; telling me what to do!”

I replied, “Oiy! I grew up the second oldest with three brothers, it’s my nature to make suggestions to guys and you are just like my blood brothers; they ignore me too!”

But in June, 2005, I was very curious as to what kind of childhood he had had, and he thought about my question a long time before he responded, “It was normal….it was normal….it was normal…I was born in Marrakech, on October 13, 1954. Second oldest of eleven, the first seven of us migrated from Morocco in 1963 after the Zionists came and convinced the neighborhood that Israel was the Promised Land. Instead of the land of milk and honey we were banished to the desert of Beersheba. In that that Doris Day movie, “The Man Who Knew Too Much”, the beginning is exactly where I grew up. I was about 8 years old when I would wander all over the bazaar all by myself. I had a few friends at school, but always went to the bazaar alone. I preferred to be alone to observe, I was always watching everyone… I was always alone but never lonely…We lived in a small neighborhood of Melah. It was a few hundred years old with a wall and a gate just like the Old City. Some people painted their homes many colors and the streets were narrow and had no names. I remember this very tall Black Muslim Arab who would fill a sheepskin with water from the town well. He would carry it around his neck and sell water to anyone who did not want to fetch it themselves. My father ran a successful grocery store and my mother was a seamstress. She would see a picture in a magazine of a dress and then would copy it for herself. My mother’s family had moved to Israel in 1956 and they sent me and my sisters and brothers clothes and things. We also got support from JOINT, a Jewish organization from the USA that sent us jeans and boots.

“It was fun to watch the gymnasts perform at the bazaar; I would watch them for hours. I wouldn’t go home until after dark and we lived in an apartment quadrangle. There were four families on each of the two floors and we shared the roof top and courtyard. There was no electricity, no running water and no sewer…. My very first memory is when I was four years old and my mother had to run downstairs for a while. She told me to keep an eye on my newborn sister, and as soon as I was alone I found out the difference between girls and boys….I was still 4 years old when I began wondering; ‘What is above the sky? What is the end of the end?’

“I grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home but rejected it all by the eighth grade. When I went to the University I became an existentialist….When I was 8 years old I stole some money for the first and last time. My father would take my older brother Al and I to his grocery store whenever we weren’t in school. Al would always go into the back and play with boxes but I remained in the front of the store and listened and learned. One Friday afternoon my father told me to watch the register as he had to run out somewhere. There was 100 shekels in the money box and I put it in my pocket as soon as he left. When he returned the first thing he did was look into the box and then he asked me; ‘Where is the money? Did you take it?’

“I saw no way out and in my panic, I lied and said something stupid, “No, no, I didn’t take it, go ahead, and check my pocket.” He did and he found the money and began to beat me with a belt and he wounded me a little in my head. That was the day I learned not to steal but it was not until the next day when I learned not to lie. The next day at school the teacher demanded everyone uncover their heads. When I did the teacher saw my wound and he sent me to the principal who asked, “What happened to you?” I didn’t want to admit my father beat me so I told him some Arabs had beaten me up. He called the police and my lie made a lot of trouble for some innocent guys, and I have never lied since then.”

I have no clue what prompted me to ask him had he always been stubborn, but he only took a few moments before he responded, “When I was 13 years old I got mad at my parents and decided I would punish them. I began my first hunger strike and it lasted three days. My parents acted like they didn’t care and not until I got very weak did I get their attention. I also remember getting really mad at my mother before a Jewish holiday. I had new clothes I wanted to wear on Friday night but she insisted I wait until the morrow. We locked horns but she had the power and won in the end. I fumed the entire evening.

“In 1963 the Zionists came to my village and encouraged everyone to migrate to Israel. There was no family discussion, my father just told us we were leaving and six months later we boarded the train to Casablanca and got on a World War II military ship. The ship kept going up and down and everyone was crammed into an open space and people everywhere kept throwing up. After four days we arrived in Marseilles. This was a great place but we had to leave for Israel. The next boat was bigger and modern and the journey was smoother. When we arrived in Israel the Interior Minister assigned us to Beersheba but all the rest of our family had been assigned to Nazareth and we wanted to go there too. We had no choice and home was a small hut in the desert. There was nothing in it and we had nothing much with us.

“After a few days my mother left for Nazareth, it was chaos and we had nothing to do to occupy us. Outside, there was only desert but I walked a few hours every day so I could be in the Old City. I started exploring around a Mexican looking town, never talking with anyone but I was always watching everyone. Three weeks later my mother returned and then my Uncle Joseph arrived and took us up north to see some more newly arrived family. We stayed for two months then moved into a new apartment in Beersheba. I went to the fifth grade and met a few friends but they were strange people. They were Romanians and a lot of Middle Easterners who used bad language and seemed cheap to me. Even the school supplies were inferior from what I had in Morocco. Even the ice cream was not ice cream, it was just ice and there was no Pepsi. I didn’t like it at all and wondered why did I have to be here?

“There were only Jewish people around, I never saw an Arab or Palestinian then, and the old mosque was uninhabited. My mother had babies every two years. I preferred to be alone, but I was never lonely. Even when I walked with my father on Saturday to pray, I didn’t talk, but I wondered about God and truth. My father became even more orthodox as I turned away. I couldn’t accept all the teachings and decided I would not accept any of them. At fourteen years old I began to doubt and by 16, I left Judaism for good. I didn’t know if God even existed and I didn’t even care. I decided I would decide for myself what is good and bad, I didn’t need anyone telling me the rules. For me it was about doing to others what I wanted them to do to me, I didn’t need any other rule…. I was sent to Yeshiva, the Jewish boarding school in the Old City. I experienced a great disconnect from God. I didn’t talk to anyone about any of it. I kept everything within and continued to wonder about finding my way, my direction and the purpose of my life. I have always searched for answers. I kept my mouth shut about not following the faith and excelled in secular studies. With everything else, I just went through the motions…in the 11th grade two friends and I were listening to the radio. This is a big sin and crime to use electricity on the Sabbath. The rabbi caught us and called my father to come get me and when we had almost reached our house, I smelled that he was going to beat me so I ran the five meters back to school without looking back. The next day the rabbi sent me for an intensive one week of Jewish studies. I was angry for the entire week. After that I returned back to my boarding room. My two friends and I had become outcasts; we were forever ignored by the other students…. The isolation became very comfortable and I began walking in the desert alone every night without any fear. I would just walk around and imagine that I would find my way, have some success.

“I passed all my classes except for English and Hebrew studies. At 18 years old I had my mind and health checked by the Israeli army doctors and was assigned to be a pilot. But I failed the hand - eye coordination and was assigned to the Navy instead. Three weeks later they sent me to the Engineering Unit where I learned about land mines, bridges and explosives. I started training with fifty others and was the most unenthusiastic of the bunch. I stood back from it all and saw it as if it were just playing stupid games. Most everyone else was serious, but I just didn’t care, all I could see was the futility…

“The day I left home for the service, my mother walked me to the bus. She gave me all the Jewish stuff; you know the phylacteries? The leather straps for the head and left arm? I put it all aside until I got my first leave, then I returned it all home and never said a word about it. I never spoke with my parents about rejecting their faith…. When I was in prison my mother came to me and told me that I was suffering because I was a Christian. I know I caused them a lot of pain and they have suffered because of my case. I forgive them even though they rejected me and my Christian faith. I have always thought for myself and made up my own mind…

“As a young boy I thought too many of the rules of Judaism were of no use. Like you can’t mix meat and cheese together. Well, the first time I did, nothing happened so then I began turning on the lights on Saturday. I tried to experience everything that had been forbidden. That first Yom Kippur I didn’t fast, didn’t pray and felt totally free for the first time in my life.”

When Vanunu speaks he maintains eye contact, but when I asked him if he then began to have some fun, he looked away for about five minutes before he responded, “No, still no fun, but finally met some secular Jews and traveled freely as a soldier and served in the occupied territories near Bethlehem. I would make treks of 15 miles through villages and felt how poor the people were under occupation and how they suffered without reason, except for the reason of injustice. In the 1970’s Israel built many fortresses and spent lots of money on equipment, but nothing on the people I saw who were oppressed and under occupation. I got really mad and upset every time I thought about how much money they wasted, but I kept my mouth shut and kept it all to myself. After a year I finished my training and was assigned to train more soldiers. For me it was all futility and waste, I saw these children become soldiers and thought what a complete waste. When the Yom Kippur War broke out I was home on leave. I returned the next day to my station near Ramallah. Soldiers with less than a month of training got called to go with me to the Jordan Valley. There weren’t enough trained troops and we were lucky we didn’t see any fighting and got to return to base after three days. After a few months we all went to Syria and the Golan Heights. When Kissinger coordinated the ceasefire, the Israeli army destroyed the area before leaving there. I was promoted to First Sergeant and they wanted me to re-up. I said no.

“I began my studies at Tel Aviv University when I was 21. I studied Physics until the army called me up for 30 days’ reserve service. When I returned to school, I couldn’t catch up. I worked in a bakery at night and attended class all day. This was the first time I met Palestinians as human beings. I began attending political demonstrations inside the university. It was all about equal human rights and respecting all others. By the time I was 23 I began working at the Dimona. It was suppose to be a textile plant but I was hired for the control room. At the time I had no idea what it was in control of. I really didn’t even want the job; I tried to get them not to hire me. On the application they asked if I knew any Palestinians. As I had an acquaintance I said yes, hoping it would disqualify me from employment. They accepted me anyway. And I watched them as closely as they watched me. I began studying philosophy and geography and read literature.

“I began wondering more about life and politics. I decided to become a hermit and vegetarian. I lived alone but never was lonely. It wasn’t ever fun but I enjoy the quiet. I was never sad but never happy either. After a year I got bored with the routine job at the Dimona and wanted to leave. I went to Beersheba University and studied economics for a year. I became involved in university politics and in student unions. I was all about protecting Palestinian students’ rights. I sided with Palestinians more and more and was invited to help establish a group of Palestinian and Jewish students for peace and justice. This was also the time I found out that it was dangerous for me to speak the truth. I was being watched, but I continued to express myself anyway. After six months I got called in by security at the Dimona and they asked me, ‘Can you imagine why you are here?’

“I answered because of my university activity? They then questioned me about all my contacts and told me to stop, that I was in danger. I told them I would try, but I knew I would continue on because it was the right cause and I will not hide my thoughts.

“After five months they called me in again and demanded I stop my activities. A few months later the Chief security man took me to the Tel Aviv Secret Room where the Israeli army security officer grilled me. They told me I could get 15 years in prison if I didn’t stop my university activities. I left the meeting and walked to a Palestinian bookstore knowing they were watching me. That night I wrote in my diary: ‘1/85. I should have finished this job at Dimona before now. Time to quit’…

“I finished the university with a BA in philosophy and geography and made plans to leave Israel and begin a new life in America. In August of 1985 I was put on a list of people who should be dismissed from the Dimona. They were laying off 10% but when they told me I was going I confronted them with ‘Why are you dismissing me? I am a good worker; you are getting rid of me for political reasons, aren’t you?’

“The union protected me and after two months they told me they were transferring me to a less secure area. I told them I would stay where I was or else I would resign. They said, ‘OK, resign.’ And I did. I had already shot the two rolls of film. I worked the night shift and had lots of time alone. I found the keys to the restricted areas in the shower room. I left the film a few days in my locker before taking it out of the Dimona. I knew they were watching me. I left Israel in January of 1986 and went to search for someone to share my story with. I didn’t develop the film until six months later. I was waiting until I found a newspaper that would cover the story. I met a Canadian author on my way to Greece, but nothing came of it. I traveled to Athens, Bangkok, and then went to Russia. I was 30 years old in a Moscow hotel wondering if I should tell my story to the Russians. I decided to leave instead. The reason I had arrived there was that before I left the Dimona I had checked out the Palestinian Communist Party to see how the communists worked. I was curious and wondered about once I left Israel, that maybe they would help me. But when I witnessed the poverty and nothing but military cars everywhere I decided to get out of there.

“I went to the Far East and met some people who had run away from Chernobyl and I told them about the Dimona. Two weeks later I arrived in Sydney and stayed for six months. I went to St. John Anglican church and became friends with the people I met there. I got a job driving a taxi and met a freelance journalist named Gervevo, I told him my story and he was enthusiastic to help me get it out. He thought I wanted to make money on it but I told him I just wanted to prevent a nuclear war and contribute to a positive change in the Middle East. Then I met Peter Hounam, the journalist from the London Sunday Times.

“I really had no idea what I was doing by getting baptized a Christian, I just felt like I had to do it. It was my way to be a new being. It wasn’t until after my trial that I started to read the New Testament. While I was in prison I would read aloud for ½ hour twice a day. I would read the entire New Testament and begin it again when I finished the Book of Revelation. I did this for me as well as for my captors. Not so much the prison guards but the ones who watched me on camera 24 hours a day. Once I covered up the camera that spied on me and was punished for one month in solitary without any books or radio, no contact with anyone anywhere was allowed.

“The Shen Beet, you know like the FBI and the Mossad, like your CIA were watching me constantly. They tortured me by keeping a light on in my cell constantly for two years. They told me it was because they were afraid I would commit suicide, and the oppressive camera was for my safety. They recruited the guards and other prisoners to irritate me. They would deprive me of sleep by making loud noises near my cell all night long.

“I chose to read them 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 instead; Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with THE TRUTH! It always protects, it always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.

“For the first five years I was in prison every day, twice a day I would loudly pray by reading Bible verses. I would also read the Anglican service from the Book of Common Prayer. I did it twice a day, every day for five years. I began to see I had become like a machine. I knew if I continued I would lose my mind. So after that I only prayed in silence. Although I knew I was driving them nuts with my loud praying, it was driving me nuts too…I changed my routine. I was allowed outside every day for two hours, I had been jogging around in circles for the two hours, now I changed my routine. I began to alter that and all my routines so I would not be like a machine….I refused to eat when they brought my food in. I would decide every day what time I would eat and what I would eat. I chose a different time every day to do anything. The camera was there to learn my behavior so they could manipulate me. I knew I had to constantly change my routine. I began reading more books about health, nutrition, history, philosophy, literature and kept my prayer life quiet.”

My last day in Jerusalem in June 2005, I met Vanunu at the American Colony, and we walked up to the Mount of Olives in silence. Not until we scaled the high hill and in view came the stoned tombs of many Jews did Vanunu speak, “Those are the Jews expecting to be resurrected first when the Messiah comes.”

I asked Vanunu, “Have you heard of the USA craze of the Left Behind series of books which leave behind the gospel of peace and love. These books are bad theology and poor literature. Did you know that in America there are Christians who actually want Armageddon? They believe they will escape the nuclear holocaust because they are now the new chosen ones. They think they will be raptured, they think they will be lifted out of the world. They believe a theology of escapism and they ignore that the gospel is: ‘The peacemakers shall be called the children of God’ and that Jesus is The Prince of Peace.”

Vanunu replied, “The time has come for the USA to see the truth of Zionism. It began as a secular nationalist movement not a religious one. Then some Christians believed when Israel became a nation it was the beginning of the second coming. They are deluded if they believe peace will come through atomic weapons. Atomic weapons are holocaust weapons. Christians should be the first people against them…The Christians in America should be helping the Christians here. America needs to wake up to this fallacy that Jesus will come back by nuclear war. America needs to wake up that the Palestinian Christians here have no human rights. Aren’t Christians supposed to be concerned about other Christians? Aren’t Christians supposed to be concerned about all the poor and oppressed?”

I responded, “It is non-negotiable all that stuff Jesus said about doing for the least and the oppressed. It is non-negotiable for Christians, we must forgive our enemies, and we must love those who hate us. What ever we do or do not do, we do it unto God… Every time I went through a checkpoint, saw the wall or heard a story of oppression, I wondered how God can stand this situation. I can’t.”

At the summit of the Mount of Olives there is much pavement, but not many trees. I found one tree cradling a few stone steps and sat down while Vanunu wandered about. After about ten minutes, Vanunu appeared and I immediately asked him, “How was it being crucified for telling the truth?”

“My human rights have been denied me because I am a Christian. When I was on trial I was treated just like a Palestinian; no human rights at all and cruel and unusual punishment, all because I told the truth. The government spread slander about me, that I was a homosexual, that I hated Jews, that I wanted fame and money. What I did was sacrifice my life for the truth. In prison I really began to feel like Jesus and Paul. When Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple, it was like me in Dimona exposing the Israelis’ dirty secrets. I felt like Paul being thrown in prison for speaking the truth.

“The only real way to worship is in loving one’s enemies. It was not easy to love my tormentors, it was only because I felt so much like Jesus crucified on the cross, and me crucified in prison, that I could do it. It was not ever easy. I have forgiven but not forgotten anything and I never will.

“In Israel, a life sentence is 25 years. Even murderers go free after 17. They imposed the same restrictions on me that Palestinians receive; no human rights at all. No phone, no visitors except family and only through an iron grill. No vacation, no holidays, no gifts. Even murderers get out for vacations! I was locked up for 18 years and still cannot go on vacation, I cannot leave and that is all I am asking, just to leave here…For 18 years in prison they even attempted to control my thoughts on paper. I would write exactly what I wanted and they would censor words like ‘kidnapped’ and ‘atomic bomb.’ They would show me how they chopped up my letters, but I continued to write exactly what I wanted. They held my body, but never my spirit or mind.”

“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. Daniel Ellsberg did, the woman from Enron did, and I did. The USA needs to wake up and see the truth that Israel is not a democracy unless you are a Jew. 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.”

I told Vanunu, “In America we understand about inalienable rights. That means they are God given rights that governments cannot take away. The right to worship where and how we choose. When I read that you were not allowed to go the few miles on Christmas Eve to celebrate mass at the Church of the Nativity, I wondered, what kind of democracy is that? I cannot understand how a democracy could haul anyone into jail because they wanted to go to a church in the next town. American democracy ensures her citizens the right to think and to speak out the truth as we see it. American democracy understands everyone has the right to a life, to liberty-which means freedom from captivity and any arbitrary controls. The evening before I attended an Interfaith Peace Conference and I kept thinking about what President Bush promised at his second inaugural and wondered if he had thought about Palestinians when he delivered it. He promised, ‘There is no justice without freedom. There can be no human rights without liberty. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for liberty we will stand with you.’”

We concluded that interview over dinner at a roof top restaurant in the Old City, where they serve the fish with skeleton and head in tact, and fries on the side. That was when Vanunu blew my mind for I had never heard what he alluded to, “Did you know that President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons? In 1963 he forced Prime Minister Ben Gurion to admit the Dimona was not a textile plant as the sign outside proclaimed but a nuclear plant. The Prime Minister said, ‘The nuclear reactor is only for peace.’

“Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection. He wrote letters demanding Ben Gurion to open up the Dimona for inspection. The French were responsible for the actual building of the Dimona. The Germans gave the money; they were feeling guilty for the holocaust and tried to pay their way out. Everything inside was written in French when I was there, almost twenty years ago. Back then the Dimona descended 7 floors underground.

“In 1955 Perez and Gurion met with the French to agree they would get a nuclear reactor if they fought against Egypt to control the Sinai and Suez Canal. That was the war of 1956. Eisenhower demanded that Israel leave the Sinai but the reactor plant deal continued on. Kennedy demanded inspections. When Johnson became president he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit the Israeli’s would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ‘69, the senators came but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them. Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986 there were over 200 bombs. Today they may have enough plutonium for 10 bombs a year. Who knows?”

During my March 2006 interview with Vanunu interview with Vanunu I focused on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights which Israel not only agreed to uphold in 1948, it was contingent upon their statehood, and how Vanunu has been denied them.

Article 1 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights upholds that: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood.

Vanunu responded, “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 Israeli media demonized me. They published many lies about me and Israel kept me totally isolated in prison for most of the 18 years. I am also regarded as a traitor because I was baptized a Christian.

Article 18 of the UDHR affirms that: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes freedom to change one’s religion.

Vanunu has consistently affirmed, “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.”

Article 13 of the UDHR upholds that: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement. Vanunu and millions of Palestinians have been denied this inalienable right under the draconian British Emergency Mandate Regulations and the concrete wall/electrified fence that has been repeatedly deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice for it does not follow the Green Line and divides Palestinians from their land, water and families. The Wall is composed of 25 to 30 foot high concrete slabs with razor wire, trenches, sniper towers, electric fences, military roads, electronic surveillance, remote controlled infantry and buffer zones that stretch over 100 miles wide that deny Palestinians access to their land, families, jobs, and resources.

Vanunu replied, “It’s very sad that Hillary Clinton went to the Jewish Wailing Wall and forgot the real crying wall is the Palestinian wall...the apartheid wall... the wall is not for defense, but to keep this conflict permanent...the people who need the help are the Palestinian Christians. We need all Christians to come and see the true facts on the ground.

“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 Israelis have 200 atomic weapons and they accuse the Palestinians and Muslims of terrorism. The world needs to wake up and see the real terrorism is the occupation and the Palestinians have lived under that terror regime for 40 years.

“Israel propaganda portrays all Palestinians as Muslim extremists and Hamas terrorists and neglect that Palestinian Christians are following the true message of Jesus Christ with nonviolent resistance. We need all Christians to come and see the truth for themselves. Israel is only a democracy if you are a Jew.”

“CNN wants to interview me; but they say they can’t do it because they don’t want problems with the Israeli censor. BBC is doing the same thing. Sixty Minutes from the United States from the beginning they wanted to do a program, but because of the censor situation they decided not to do it. Also the big media from Germany, France, Italy, Japan; none of them wants problems with the Israelis.

Vanunu concluded that interview with, “My hope is that the pullouts will continue in the West Bank and then they will bring down the wall.”

On St. Patrick Day 2005, Vanunu spoke to the media immediately after he had been arrested for speaking with the media in 2004, after his release from 18 years in Ashkelon for telling the world the truth that Israel had gone nuclear. Immediately after his arrest, Vanunu issued this statement, “I have no more secrets to tell and have not set foot in Dimona for more than 18 years. I have been out of prison, although not free, for one year now. Despite the illegal restrictions on my speech, I have again and again spoken out against the use of nuclear weapons anywhere and by any nation. I have given away no sensitive secrets because I have none. I have not acted against the interests of Israel nor do I wish to. I have been investigated by the police again and again, and re-arrested. They have found nothing. I have done nothing but speak for peace and world safety from a nuclear disaster…I do not want to harm Israel, but rather to warn of an enormous danger. I want to work for world peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. I want the human race to survive.”

Vanunu’s historic freedom of speech trial began on January 25, 2006, masterfully obfuscated by the Palestinian elections on the same day, and only three reporters attended. The testimonies against him were the interviews he gave in 2004, but the media has been missing in action.

The ancient prophets were always ignored in their lifetime, and I once wrote an Op-ed that stated that Vanunu was also a prophet. When he read the piece, he emailed me and in bold letters wrote: “DON’T CALL ME THAT!”

I won’t to his face, but in the spirit of freedom of speech, I cannot help myself. Prophets do NOT predict the future-as much as they point out impending doom. Vanunu pointed the way to the weapons of mass destruction program underground in the Negev desert, and they have yet to receive an International Inspection.

The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah also spent much of his life under house arrest in Jerusalem, for being a truth teller. We know more about the personal life and struggles of Jeremiah than any other Hebrew prophet. Jeremiah, which translates as “The Lord throws”-as in hurling, had few friends and is considered primarily a prophet of doom.

Jeremiah was intensely introspective, self-critical and timid by nature but honest and open about his feelings towards God. Jeremiah never married and began prophesying in Judah from 604-586, a time of “storm and stress when the doom of entire nations-including Judah itself-was being sealed... [For Judah was only a] pawn in the power plays of imperial giants… [Jeremiah was] once the king’s friend and confident, but the prophet soon entered a dreary round of persecution and imprisonment, alternating with only brief periods of freedom, and lived under virtual house arrest.

Jeremiah was also labeled a traitor by many for speaking truth to power, “I cannot keep silent…Disaster follows disaster; the land lies in ruins…My people are fools; they do not know me.”-Jeremiah 4:19, 20

Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity have allowed Vanunu to be jailed for 18 years and imprisoned in Jerusalem since April 21, 2004. Israel has never admitted to having nukes and has not signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. But, that did not stop Israel from locking up Vanunu for 18 years and holding him under house arrest ever since, claiming he is a security risk. How Orwellian that the Israeli government worries Vanunu still has a secret that can harm them, but ignores the risk to the public health caused by the Dimona, a leaking dinosaur of a nuclear plant. Perhaps Vanunu still has a secret that could hurt Israel and my conjecture is it is the details about the psychological torture he endured in solitary confinement. Or, perhaps it could be Big Brother’s control over corporations?

On February 22, 2006 in a Jerusalem court it was revealed that Israel had asked Microsoft to hand over all the details of Vanunu’s Hotmail account before a court order had even been obtained, while eluding that Vanunu was being investigated for espionage.

According to Vanunu, “Microsoft obeyed the orders and gave them all the details, three months before I was arrested and my computers were confiscated. It is strange to ask Microsoft to give this information before obtaining the court order to listen to my private conversations. It means they wanted to go through my emails in secret, or maybe with the help of the secret services, the Shaback, Mossad.”

Attorney Michael Sfard repeatedly requested Police Representative Mr. Peterburg to specifically state what type of espionage activity Vanunu was accused of. According to Vanunu, “The policeman did not have any answers and said that he brought all the evidence to the court. When Sfard asked him again about any material related to the espionage charge, Peterburg had no answers.

“Sfard proved that the police had misled the judges who gave the orders to arrest me: to search my room, to go through my email, to confiscate my computers and that they misled Microsoft to believe they are helping in a case of espionage. The State came to the court with two special secret Government orders, called Hisaion, which are documents or information that are deemed confidential by the government and kept from the court, the defendant, and lawyers. This allows the prosecution to keep documents related to my court hearing secret. One was from the Minister for Interior Security and one from the Minister of Defense.”

According to Vanunu, his secretly taped police interrogations, his 2004 Christmas Eve arrest for “attempting to leave the country” while traveling the four miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the confiscation of his private property by thirty IDF that stormed into his room at St. George’s Cathedral had all “been done…under the false and misleading statements to the courts of ‘suspicion of espionage’, and yet they are not charging me with spy crimes. And the fact is that I have not committed any crimes.”

As of this writing Vanunu and the Palestinians are still waiting for the Jewish State to do Micah 6:8:

“What does the Lord require? He has already told you o’man! Be just, be merciful and walk humbly with your God.”

Eileen Fleming,
Reporter and Editor of
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

Author "KEEP HOPE ALIVE" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"

Producer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu"