Open Letter of Appeal to the Jewish people
Dear Friends,
I write to ask for your help in gaining the freedom of a good man,
a man of peace, and a man of conscience.
In the Jewish scriptures there is great emphasis on justice and freedom
and it is for such, for one man, that I write to seek your help.
He will not be aware that I am writing this Appeal, but I do so in the hope
that, with your help, it will produce his freedom, and not (and this I must
risk) cause yet more punishment and cruelty to be inflicted upon him.
However, I feel when I tell you the story, it will touch your hearts and there
will be those amongst you who will be able to help him gain his freedom.
In May,2010, this man was returned to prison to serve three months for
allegedly breaking his
prison release restrictions and speaking to Foreign Media. On Sunday llth
July,2010, he had his first visit in seven weeks. His brother, Meir, was
granted a 30 minute visit. There was a glass window between them and they
spoke via the phone. He wore a prison uniform. He is held in the hardest
prison section there is in the prison. It has the most notorious criminals in
the country, well known hard murder cases. All about a dozen are in severe
isolation conditions. He is in a cell by himself for 24 hours a day, no window
but a small wire covered crack at the top part of one wall. He has about an
hour’s walk a day in a very tiny yard. He was simply thrown in a cell by the
security agents, the door locked, and left to suffer there all alone. He has
not spoken to anyone in all the seven weeks and this visit was (apart from a
short visit of his lawyer 6 weeks ago) the
first conversation he had in seven weeks. His food is limited in quality and
quantity, and his reading material two books he has with him. Of course his
spirits are down as a result of being put in such harsh, inhuman and cruel
conditions.
His name is Mordechai Vanunu, and he is in an Israeli prison cell. Mordechai
is no
stranger to prison. In l986 Mordechai Vanunu told the world that Israel had a
Nuclear Weapons Programme and he was given 18 years imprisonment for doing so.
He is the Israeli Nuclear whistle blower and 24 years later continues to be
punished for trying to warn the Israelis and protect both Israel and the world
from a Nuclear weapons disaster. Mordechai Vanunu served the full 18 years of
his sentence (eleven years in solitary ) and upon release, instead of allowing
him to leave Israel, the Israeli Government put severe restrictions upon him,
including forbidding him to leave
Israel and not to speak to foreign media. It was the allegedly breaking of
these restrictions and speaking to Foreign media, which resulted in Mordechai
being returned to prison for 3 months. He has 6 weeks left to serve in these
harsh prison conditions, and even upon release from prison will still have to
remain in Israel until next April, 2011 when the restrictions will be reviewed
and probably renewed yet again, as they have been renewed each year for the
past 6 years. Some people say Vanunu will never be allowed to leave Israel
but will die there, if indeed in the meantime his spirit is not broken by his
ill treatment and he losses his sanity.
The Shabak continues to tell the Israeli Government he is a security risk and
must not be released and the Israeli Judiciary and Government obey them and
keep him imprisoned. Vanunu is no risk to Israeli National Security. He has
no
nuclear
Secrets. I have asked some Israelis why they think Israel refuses to allow
Mordechai Vanunu to leave Israel. Various reasons are given but the most
frequent answer is they feel the Israeli Government does not trust its citizens
and holding Mordechai Vanunu, forever, if necessary sends out the signal to
Israeli Citizens to behave themselves.
It seems, if this is so, that the strategy is working. To date only a few
courageous Jewish people have raised their voices against such cruelty and
injustice perpetrated upon Mordecai, and called for him to be allowed to leave
Israel. But I don’t believe Mordechai will never be allowed to leave Israeli
and will die in Jerusalem. I have met Mordechai many times since he was
released from prison on 2lst April, 2004. He is a good man, a man of peace,
and a true Gandhian spirit. Instead of punishing him, Israel should be proud
of Mordechai
Vanunu, and I believe that future generations of Israelis will look back and
realize that there lived amongst them a great visionary and man of peace, not
only for Israel, but for the human family. It was with great joy I nominated
him several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, as did many other prominent names
during the past 24 years. He richly serves the NPP as he lives and acts in the
true spirit of Alfred Nobel, who left his prize for those who would work for
peace and disarmament.
However, it is with the deepest sadness that I acknowledge that in spite of
world campaigns by many, including Amnesty International (and personal letters
from myself to President Obama, President Shimon Peres,) Mordechai Vanunu
continues 24 years later to be most cruelly imprisoned and punished by
Israel. Most Political and Spiritual leaders, and International Bodies, of
our time are silent in the face of Israel’s
abuse of Vanunu’s basic human right to freedom of speech and liberty, which is
in violation of many International Laws.
However, I have hope that he will be free and I place my hope in those Jewish
people who read this story and are moved to right a wrong continuing to be done
to Mordechai Vanunu, and they will demand that their Government give him his
freedom, and allow him to leave Israel.
Shalom,
Mairead Maguire
Nobel Peace Laureate
www.peacepeople.com
14.7.2010
Máiread Corrigan-Maguire won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976, along with Betty
Williams, for her work to bring peace to Northern Ireland. She was on the Mavi
Marmara which was seized by Israel in May 2010.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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