Last Friday again the Israel authorities use their power to arrest me, but this time they put me back in prison for 2 days, causing me back to remember all the cruelty and hard life of 18 years in isolation.
The reason this time was because I came very close to the check point near the wall in Aram, a small Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem where they have not yet decided where the apartheid wall is going to continue.
I took a bus from the bus station in east Jerusalem and traveled to the Aram village without being checked, but when the bus returned to Jerusalem, they inspected the it at the Aram check point.
At the check point, they took my ID card and the soldiers received orders to arrest me. They confiscated my camera and my mobile, and took me to the nearest police station, where I waited for the special police unit to come from Tel Aviv and take me to there to be questioned.
Meanwhile, the police themselves invited the Israel media TV to come and let them take as many photos as they wanted and to report my arrest in their main news, as a man who is going to the occupied territories where the “enemies,” “fighting” them. They did this because they want the Israeli public to regard me as being equal to terrorist.
I said to the media “they arrested me when I went to see the Aram check point, to see the Apartheid wall, the Palestinians ghettos.”
In Tel Aviv they questioned me about why I was “Interring” to the Palestine occupied territories. They wanted to know what I was doing there and why I was not following the general Army’s orders. I said Aram is still part of Palestine east Jerusalem, I am not interested to see the occupied territories, I just want to see the apartheid wall, to see this village, and it is not yet clear where the borders of Jerusalem are. They wanted to know with whom I was traveling, their names, why I was with foreigners, and he wanted to see my camera photos.
The police decided to arrest me because they wanted to release me under court orders. However, there is no court on the Jewish Sabbath day, so they had to wait until Saturday night. They imprisoned me in Tel Aviv, in a cell without any thing but a mattress and a blanket.
Saturday morning my lawyer Feldman and Sfard, came to see me, to hear what happened, and to represent me in court. In the evening the police took me back to the court, and the woman judge heard my case at 20:30. Feldman did not agree to the police terms of my release. They wanted 2 of week’s house arrest, and 50.000 shekels. Feldman convinced the judge and even the police that this arrest was a big mistake because I did not violate the terms of my release, since it is not yet clear where Israel wants to put its apartheid wall. But, before the judge made her decision the police capitulated and agreed for immediate release without any condition, just my signature.
This was a small victory for Feldman in defending me, and my friend Gideon took me back to Jerusalem, St George, where we had a glass of Beer.
But the police and the Israeli spies couldn’t go without something. They demanded that I give them my Camera and my mobile so they could check them. Now I don’t have my mobile and no phone connection until receiving them back.
So that was another incident of harassment in this new series of cruelty since my release. They will not give up and let me go — leave Israel. If they could put me back in prison they would.
My conclusion: the world continues to ignore my situation and is not doing anything to help me gain my freedom in the same way it did during the 18 years of my imprisonment. Nobody will intervene to demand my release. The world stands by and allows Israel to do as it pleases. The world will let them commit more crimes such as kidnapping, injustice and cruelty.
Vanunu Mordechai, John Crossman, VMJC
Stone walls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free.
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.
(R Lovelace)
November 29, 2005
Mordechai Vanunu
Nuclear Whistle-blower
Peace Campaigner
Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
each year since 1988
www.Vanunu.org
