Israeli court says nuclear hero must remain

Israeli court says nuclear hero Mordechai Vanunu must remain a virtual prisoner

As we predicted, Israel’s Supreme Court has dismissed a request by nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu to leave Israel.

Vanunu, who served 18 years in prison for telling the world the truth about Israel’s nuclear secrets, was released from prison in 2004, but he is prohibited from leaving the apartheid state, visiting the occupied West Bank or approaching foreign embassies and speaking with foreign nationals. He also is not permitted to communicate with others online.

On 25 December Vanunu told a Supreme Court hearing that he wanted to leave the supremacist Jewish state. “I don’t want to live in Israel,” he said, adding that he is often subjected to harassment by the Israeli public whenever he is recognized.

However, on 29 December Supreme Court Justice Asher Grunis denied Vanunu’s appeal, stating:

The restrictions are intended to prevent future dissemination of classified material. In recent years the court has examined the necessity of the restrictions several times, and each time has been convinced that they are necessary for state security. The evidence shown here, including the covert evidence, indicates that the plaintiff is still a source of classified information, and is not hesitant to disseminate the information.

Reacting to the ruling, Vanunu wrote: “No justice in Israel democracy. The Supreme Court, by its Chief Justice Grunis, rejected my appeal to be free from Israel state, after 27 years in Israel prison.”

He told the writer Eileen Fleming: “All the secrets I had were published in 1989 in an important book, by [Nuclear Physicist] Frank Barnaby, The Invisible Bomb: Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East.

In 1986, Barnaby was hired by the the Sunday Times to vet Vanunu’s story and he testified at Vanunu’s closed door trial:

I found Vanunu very straightforward about his motives for violating Israel’s secrecy laws he explained to me that he believed that both the Israeli and the world public had the right to know about the information he passed on. He seemed to me to be acting ideologically.

Israel’s political leaders have, he said, consistently lied about Israel’s nuclear-weapons programme and he found this unacceptable in a democracy. The knowledge that Vanunu had about Israel’s nuclear weapons, about the operations at Dimona, and about security at Dimona could not be of any use to anyone today. He left Dimona in October 1985.

Keeping Vanunu in chains in the Jews-only state, prohibited from travelling or talking to foreigners, has nothing to do with Israel’ security. It is a about vengeance, pure and simple – Old Testament style.

So, please help keep Vanunu’s case alive by signing this petition, calling on the media to seek and report the truth about Israel’s nuclear deceptions and Vanunu’s nearly 10-year struggle for his right to be free from Israel.

ENDS

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