Israeli Persecution of Mordechai Vanunu

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Vanunu is a heroic whistleblower, viciously persecuted by Israel for revealing it's nuclear armed and dangerous.

In 1986, he was kidnapped, beaten, drugged, secretly tried, and politically imprisoned for 18 years, mostly in harsh solitary confinement - for revealing what everyone has a right to know.

Since release in 2004, he's been relentlessly hounded and monitored, imprisoned without justification, his fundamental freedoms denied, re-imprisoned several times.

Israel won't give him a moment's peace even though he has no updated information on its nuclear program since the mid-1980s. He's got no new secrets to reveal.

He's denied the right to renounce his Israeli citizenship, leave the country, and be free from its ruthless persecution. He's barred from having unauthorized contacts with journalists, including Israeli ones.

He's denied the right to do most everything without official permission. Israel holds him hostage to its viciousness.

Earlier explaining why he revealed information on its nuclear program, he earlier said "I am neither a traitor nor a spy. I only wanted the world to know what was happening."

Daniel Ellsberg called him "the preeminent hero of the nuclear era." He's vulnerable to rearrest any time for any contrived reason.

All he wants is his freedom, he said, waiting over 30 years in vain. On July 10, the Jerusalem Post headlined "Israeli Nuclear Secret-Leaker sentenced for contact with foreigners," saying:

"…Jerusalem's Magistrate's Court gave…Vanunu a two-month suspended jail sentence on Monday for violating the conditions of his previous release, having met with foreigners in recent years."

If he commits a "similar violation in the next three years," he'll be re-imprisoned for two months, maybe longer if Israel intends severer punishment - for exercising his fundamental rights recognized by all just societies.

He was also sentenced to 120 hours of unspecified community service. In May 2016, he was irresponsibly charged with:

meeting with two US nationals in East Jerusalem in 2013 without permission;

moving to a new apartment in the same building in 2014 without notifying Israeli authorities; and

appearing on Israel's Channel 2 television on September 4, 2015, discussing his 1986 arrest and imprisonment, as well as dangers of Israel's nuclear program, including its Dimona plant hazards.

In January, he was acquitted of these charges. Yet unrelenting Israeli mistreatment continues.

Nuclear ambiguity remains official Israeli policy. It neither confirms or denies what's common knowledge. The nation is nuclear-armed and dangerous.

Despite agreeing to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), effective January 2016, permitting Iranian nuclear development solely for non-military purposes, its government continues being wrongfully accused of seeking nuclear weapons.

In contrast, the world community remains largely silent about Israel's longstanding nuclear weapons program - supported by Washington from its earliest stages.

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