Let Vanunu Go

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Thursday October 07, 2004 19:24

by Justin Morahan - Peace People

Protest at Israeli Embassy Dublin

Today's protest was to mark the day on which the Israeli whistleblower and the world's first nuclear hostage, Mordechai Vanunu, was to receive a Peace Prize in New York

Four of us protested for 2 hours today outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin. It marked the day on which Mordechai Vanunu was to receive his Ono-Lennon Prize for Peace - but of course he was not able to be in the US to collect it because Israel has denied him the right to travel outside Israel's borders.

By a co-incidence it also was the day on which the newspapers were full of the findings of the Iraqi Survey Group's Report which has found that there were no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)in Iraq at the time they were used as an excuse for the attack on Iraq in 2003. The ISG report was commissioned by President Bush himself. It will be recalled that Vanunu spent 18 years in prison (nearly 12 of these in solitary confinement) for revealing the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Israel but Israel is free to have such weapons - no scare, no hulabuloo, no outcries from Bush or Blair on that score.

Our posters reflected both of the above issues: NO WMDS IN IRAQ, LOADS IN ISRAEL -LET VANUNU GO, and VANUNU NOT FREE TO COLLECT PEACE PRIZE IN NEW YORK TODAY - LET VANUNU GO:

Newstalk 106, the popular Dublin Radio station, carried a live 2-minute interview on the protest and we were visited also by a Sunday Times reporter. The reaction from bypassers as always was positive.

(On 30th September 5 people chained themselves to the railings of the Israeli Embassy in London to mark the continued restraints on Vanunu's freedom on the 18th anniversary of his imprisonment. The theme of their protest was LET VANUNU GO See report and picture of their action at: www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk )