Vanunu Mordechai:”Israel is a racist apartheid state” [Archives:2005/803/Local News]

The Yemen Times was able to obtain the statement of Vanunu Mordechai, the renowned former Israeli nuclear physicist, in which he complained about the ill treatment he received while trying to go to the Holy City of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. Mordechai, who was recently released from Israeli imprisonment after 16 years in jail, was hoping to celebrate Christmas in the City of the Nativity (Vanunu converted from Judaism to Christianity). In an email letter written to a friend (in Cairo) he has apparently been communicating with for some time (and who elected to remain anonymous) describes the duress he endured from the Israeli police as he set out to celebrate Christmas where Jesus, the Messenger of Peace, was born.

The exchange of correspondence started with a request by Vanunu that his friend spread the word about his difficulties with the Israeli security chasing him and preventing him from going to Bethlehem.

He stated that the Israeli police warned the Bishop of the Church he was staining in sanctuary not to take him to Bethlehem or anywhere else. When the Israeli police found him after he resisted the ban and took a taxi to take him there, knowing full well that they would come and stop him. They arrested him to the Police Precinct in Jerusalem and then took him to the Police Precinct in Tel Aviv. There, he was interrogated and asked to give his reason for defying their restrictions on him from going anywhere outside the Church Sanctuary, with out their permission. He insisted that there was no reason to restrict him from celebrating Christmas where he sees fit and that the ban on his going was merely a sign of the contempt that the Zionist State has for worshippers who profess other than the Jewish faith. He suggested that Israel is a state that adopts the apartheid ethnic and religious discrimination policy and non-Jews are not accorded any rights if they happen to live in Israel. The text of the exchanges between Vanunu and Anonymous may be found in full in last Monday's web edition of the YT (Issue 802). We have reproduced below his description of the ordeal.

From: Vanunu Mordechai

Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 19:08:48 +0000

To: Anonymous (in Cairo)

Dear Anonymous

Last Night, on Christmas Eve, I tried to go to BETHLEHEM to celebrate my first Christmas in freedom, and to see Bethlehem, but the police was searching for me and waiting for me, so they arrested me, took me to a Tel Aviv police station for questioning.

They warned me before not to go to Bethlehem. But I decided not to respect these restrictions, (of those) who are not respecting me as a human being, so I tried to travel by taxi. The bishop too was warned by the police not to take me with him to Bethlehem.

So I took taxi, and the police stopped me and took me to the police station, in Jerusalem, and then to Tel Aviv for questioning. My answer (to them) was I am not respecting Israel restrictions, because the State of Israel is a racist apartheid state; if you are not a Jew you don't have rights here. So I was ready to let them prove to the entire world how Israel can not tolerate a man who is going to celebrate Christmas. All this arrest was not about security, or NWs (nuclear weapons); it was about freedom and democracy for all the people not only for the Jews.

They arrested me at 21:00, released me at 01:00.with house arrest for 5 days, back in St George, again prevented me from celebrating my Christmas, and again believing they can bring me back to the life of Jewish people…

My conclusion I can wait until my total freedom, and know if there is any future nuclear conference.

(Otherwise) under such conditions I can not act as a free man.

Happy Christmas.

vmjc

Vanunu Mordechai, (alias) John Crossman, Kidnapped from Rome by Israeli secret agents Sept. 30, 1986. Served 18 years in prison for revealing Israel's Dimona nuclear weapons secrets. Elected Rector of Glasgow University Dec' 2004.

In sanctuary at St. George Cathedral, My address. St George Cathedral East Jerusalem.
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