PREVIOUS BACK TO HOMEPAGE NEXT
From early January 1987 until
early June that year I would be working non-stop, around the clock, to moblise
worldwide support for Mordechai Vanunu , and drawing the public's attention to
the dangerous nuclear bombs arsenal the zionist rulers of Israel had stockpiled
in Israel.
On the 28th of
December 1986, the trial of Mordechai Vanunu had begun in Israel. The trial
would be secret, but the charges were made known: treason and espionage. Also
allowed to be known was the fact that the accused had pleaded not guilty.
However, he had been in solitary confinement in a small cell, which was
permanently flooded with light and under video camera surveilance. To make his
life even more unbearable he was deprived also of a prisoner's elementary
rights, such as family visits. Vanunu then decided to go on a hunger strike as
his only form of defence. The hunger strike began on the 4th of January, 1987,
and from then on I had been making phone calls, writing letters updating the
struggle of Vanunu and for him worldwide, as well as posting out press cuttings
to members of parliaments and to other
public figures.
Again I tried to get in touch
with the Sydney Anglican priest -
Mcknight was his name, I think - but he won't cooperate. I then had to forget
about him, and to carry on the campaign alone , and I did . On 11 January 1987,
a local Sunday paper reported from
Israel that Vanunu was in grave danger as a result of his hunger strike
combined with his absolute isolation.
On reading the news I immediately hurried to the local Post Office to
cable the following urgent cable to people and organisations around the
world: ISRAELI PRESS REPORT MORDECHAI
VANUNU ON HUNGER STRIKE DURING SOLITARY CONFINEMENT NOW DYING STOP PLEASE ACT
NOW TOGETHER TO SAVE HIS LIFE BENJAMIN MERHAV. A week later I dispatched a
second batch of telegrams. I spent hundreds of dollars on those cables as I was
determined not to let the zionist Gestapo destroy the man who had done such an
important service to humanity.
On 17 January 1987, I
phoned Judy Zimmet, Vanunu's girlfriend, who then stayed in Israel. She sounded
terrified and told me she was going back home to the USA, and she gave me her
Boston Address. I immediately wrote to her a detailed letter in which I
reported my activities in a campaign to free Vanunu. In her reply she opened as
follows: "Dear Mr. Merhav, it
was good speaking to you in Be'er Sheva. I arrived home a few days ago and I've
been slowly picking up the pieces of my life here...Thank you for your
interest, support, and the work you've done for Moti..." Her subsequent
letter, of 24 of February 1987, opens as follows : "Dear Beny, thank you
for your help and support ! You're doing an incredible job! Larry is right - you need to think of
youself - and save your money and try to enlist help..." Larry was an anti
nuclear campaigner in Christchurch, New Zealand, who was one of the few people
who took action in cooperation with me.
In mid February I
received the first letter from Vanunu himself. Written in and sent from his
prison cell in Israel he was very constricted in what he could write about.
Dated 1st February, 1987, it was the 29th day of his hunger strike, and he
writes (in Hebrew) as follows: " Today I received your two letters and I
thank you so much for them. They are encouragement to me. Also your advice. I
will make use of it." My advice to him related to his hunger strike, and
it regards relaxation, physical fitness, and the safest way to terminate his
hunger strike (whenever he would decide to do so). I really felt a personal
affinity with the person in the zionist Gestapo prison. But then, out of the
blue, in his letter of 5 March, 1987, he began to express his annoyance at my
criticism of the Anglican priest of Sydney (McKnight). Vanunu wrote: "I
could not understand what problems have you got (with McKnight)...", and
in his last letter, dated 17 March, 1987, he wrote rather angrily : ..."I
trust him (McKnight) and believe that he too is making great efforts... understand ? "
Through correspondence
and phone calls that I had made we soon had an international campaign of
solidarity with Mordechai Vanunu , a campaign which highlighted the dangers of
Israel's nuclear bombs arsenal. The central organising team was made up of Judy
in the USA, Thea in the UK, Larry in New Zealand, and myself in Australia. At
the height of the solidarity campaign we arranged for Vanunu to be nominated as
a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. A member of the Australian Senate had
the nomination endorsed by 9 Australian MPs, and it was followed by a British
nomination signed by 35 British MPs . Also,
Vanunu's case was raised in the European Parliament by some of its members.
In the USA too the solidarity campaign had been rapidly gaining momentum. There
were petitions too circulating in various countries in support of Mordechai
Vanunu. Here in Australia myself alone had collected a few thousand signatures
and then dispatched them to the address of the Prime minister of Israel.
Compared to the
international campaign of solidarity with Vanunu very little has been happening
inside the State of Israel in support of Mordechai Vanunu, or in protest
against the zionist nuclear bombs arsenal. The little protest action in support
of Mordechai Vanunu there was due to the activities of his brother and to the
actions of Mordechai Vanunu himself. Due to their pressure the "Committee
for an Open Trial for Mordechai Vanunu" was formed. However, public
opinion in Israel remained hostile to Vanunu and to the nuclear disarmament
cause.
By the middle of 1987,
when my involvement with Vanunu's case reached the end, I had no money left.
All my savings, some $2500, had been spent on financing the campaign of
solidarity with Mordechai Vanunu. It was about that time that I had got a
letter of appreciation from Vanunu's brother who was then living in London. The
letter says that if only he could get 10 people like me, to be as committed as
I had been to his brother's cause, then Mordechai Vanunu would have been freed
. I then wrote to Thea, the Palestinian woman activist, to explain my position
and my plans for the future.
The middle of 1987 marked
the 20th year of zionist occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. I
wrote to Thea that in my opinion it is the right time to remind the world of
the June 1967 zionist invasions of Arab lands and the of the illegal zionist
occupation which followed.
As the Vanunu campaign
was winding up for me I had more time to renew the contact with my daughter.
Once more her mother had her locked up in the looni bin against daughter's
will, and I went visit her there. At about that time I got a letter from my
mother in Israel inviting me to visit her at her expense. I discussed the
matter with daughter and got her agreement to the proposed visit.
PREVIOUS BACK TO HOMEPAGE NEXT