Because of the momentous election day events taking
place in Palestine, here's a story that was probably not reported in your local,
regional or national mainstream press outlets. It took place in a tiny but definitely
not crowded court room in West Jerusalem where the second trial of Mordechai
Vanunu got underway. Given the fact that the trial began on the day when the
attention of the entire international press corps stationed in Israel was concentrated
in the West Bank and Gaza, it was virtually assured that the episode would pass
by mainly unnoticed and unremarked. "At first, the judge arranged the trial
for the 15th of January," Mordechai explained good naturedly while waiting
for the proceedings to begin. "But then he moved it, because the Israel
government wanted it be on the day of the election,"
"Why?"
"So all the attention by the public and the media would not be on Vanunu
but on the elections."
"But why that?"
"Because each time I am in the courts it reminds them of Israel's atomic
weapons. The Zionists want to keep hiding them and stopping the talk."
Vanunu, of course, is the irrepressible whistle blowing former Orthodox Jew
turned Anglican gadfly who back in 1986 at considerable risk revealed to a British
newspaper the fact of Israel's secret full speed ahead nuclear armaments program.
After letting that particular cat out of the bag, he was kidnapped to Israel
by secret agents and sentenced to eighteen years in solitary confinement for
revealing that specific truth. Most First World governments still officially
pretend that the little man on the stair he revealed is still not there…on
the stair. The fiction allows them to resist seeking to curtail the program
like they have been trying to do in Iran and North Korea.
After serving the full eighteen year term, Vanunu was released from jail, confined
to Jerusalem and forbidden to give interviews to foreign journalists. He has
observed the travel restriction scrupulously; but the minute he was released
in April 2004 he launched a nonstop campaign of civil disobedience by talking
to foreign reporters in English either in person or by electronic hook up. In
fact he remains eagerly accessible to any one who cares to call him up to see
if he is available.
So after eight months of deliberately thumbing his nose at what he considers
an intolerable infringement on his right to speak publicly and on the day when
the attention of the international press was otherwise occupied reporting the
death of Yassir Arafat, his room in the guest house of Anglican St. Georges'
Cathedral was raided by Israeli police. All of his materials: tapes, DVDs, notebooks,
computers were seized; and he was taken away for hours of interrogation before
being let go [See From The Inside Looking Out, Report-44: Mordechai, December
21, 2004].
"And this trial relates back to that raid over a year ago?"
"Yes, that was the beginning. They arrested me. They questioned me. And
now we have this trial about how they want to continue to interfere with me.
See, what I say to the reporters is only what I said in 1986. What I am doing
that is new, now that I am out of prison, is expressing my political views about
what I found out then. I don't know any new secrets. I told all I knew. So they
are against my freedom of speech and movement. They don't want me to talk against
Israel making nuclear weapons proliferation in the Middle East. They don't want
me to say that they should be abolished because in 1986 they already had 230
atomic bombs and the hydrogen bomb. They don't need all that for defense. Those
are holocaust bombs. They are for extermination."
The trial is taking place in the lowest tier of the Israeli court system; it's
called the Peace Court in the hopes that the disputants can come to some kind
of agreement before a trial has to take place. "So, are you willing to
make a deal with the prosecutor, like for instance, you let me go and I'll stop
talking to the foreign press while I am here?
"Yes, that's what I told to my lawyers when the government said, 'We want
to end this case by agreement, by deal.' So, I said, 'I am ready for that when
you tell me when and how I can leave the country, to start a new life, to work,
and to write my story for the record.'"
"So what did the prosecutors say when you said, 'Just let me go?'"
"I'm still waiting to hear from them."
"And," I replied, "I'm still trying to get my mind around what
they are prosecuting you for?"
"For doing interviews like we are doing right here in the court, in front
of the Prosecutor."
The first day was taken up with the introduction of evidence: snippets from
recordings of more than twenty interviews with all the usual suspects: interviews
by the likes of Amy Goodman, David Frost, lesser lights from the Australian
media, and the kind of radio stations and websites that Bill O'Reilly et al
love to bash: KPFA, KPFP, WBAI, etc. Each one contained his complaints and concerns
about 1) what he had learned about Israel's role in the small nation nuclear
proliferation issue and 2) the infringement and circumscribing of his rights
since leaving prison.
At one point an amusedly incredulous Vanunu nudged me in the ribs and whispered,
"Can you believe this? They are doing my testifying for me."
A little later his lead lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, objected when the prosecution
tried to introduce recordings of his phone conversations and transcripts of
chat room discussion. The broadcast and website interviews were one thing being
public in nature, but phone conversations and chat room chatter, being private,
is another. The judge said he'd think about that.
And after that, the proceedings turned a bit sinister when it was revealed that
the several interrogations of Vanunu by the police had been secretly videotaped.
Some were played in court.
When the session ended, Vanunu said, "We don't know what will be the outcome,
verdict and maybe a sentence." But, once again he reiterated what he darn
well thinks it ought to be. Acquittal, of course. "This is about freedom
of speech," he said. "We have not committed any crimes. So I think
really it is Israel's democracy system that is on trial. Either there is freedom
of speech for Vanunu or there is no freedom of speech for him. Because what
I did since leaving the prison is just expressing my views; and that is my right
to do."
Trial as currently scheduled takes up again on February 9 and 12..