November 22-27, 2004

Stories from my break - Mordachi Vanunu

I caught a service (shared taxi) out of Al Khalil (Hebron) up to Jerusalem. One woman with a child insisted on sitting in the rear corner in order to hide her child from the soldiers looking in. I’m not quite sure why this was important, but I take it for granted that this occupying army has weird policies and that her efforts were related to one of them. On the way out of town we got stuck in traffic in front of a falafel shop owned by a friend of driver, who insisted we take a bag of fresh falafel. When we got to the checkpoint outside Jerusalem, the driver gave the rest of the falafel to the soldiers. One glanced inside at our IDs and then waved us through. They didn’t notice the child.

I went directly to the Faisal Hostel, my favorite place in East Jerusalem. It is a cheap, run-down hostel with dormitory beds, free internet, and all the coffee and tea you can drink, all the nargilla you can smoke, and all the shish-bish (like bad gammon) and chess you can play. It is the Jerusalem headquarters of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to whom I am still loyal, and is always full of young radical activists passing through on their way to the next demonstration. ISM memorabilia covers the walls, including a painting of the tent campaign in Rafah of which I was a part, and portraits of Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, Allah yar hammum (may God bless their souls).

In addition to random internationals, other folks sometimes pop by. On this night, an older gentlemen came in and began talking with a French woman. He was short and bald, and I thought he looked a little familiar. He noticed my trademark red cap and asked if I was with CPT, “I’ve met with some of their delegations” he said. I asked him is name and he said “Johnny Walker, have you heard of me?” and he and French woman laughed. I sat down and the French woman said, this is Mordachi Vanunu, do you know who he is. My jaw dropped, and I didn’t know whether or not to believe her, especially after the Johnny Walker comment. As I talked to him, however, it became clear it was true.

For those of you who need a reminder, Mordachi Vanunu is an Israeli nuclear technician who began to have moral problems with his work developing nuclear weapons. At that time, Israel’s nuclear program was highly secretive, so he took pictures and exposed Israel’s program as the fourth largest nuclear arsenal in the world. He had taken political asylum in the UK, but was lured to Rome by a seductive Israeli spy (he’s known to have a weakness for women), whereupon the Israeli secret service captured him and threw him in an Israeli jail. They kept him in jail for eighteen years, fourteen years of solidarity confinement, and released him less than a year ago. As conditions of his release, he is banned from leaving the country and from talking to internationals. He has not even given lip service to the latter of these conditions, and frequently does interviews and speaks to groups. I kind of liked that his and my conversation was technically illegal.

He’s living in Saint Anthony’s in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. Israeli police rearrested him recently and held him for a few days in administrative detention, but I guess he’s out now. The police reportedly stormed the sanctuary where he was staying, completely violating Old Testament laws against arresting people in holy places.

Shortly before his first arrest, Vanunu converted to Christianity. He said it was because Israel has so corrupted the Jewish identity (as if Europe and the US haven’t corrupted Christianity). During his years of solitary confinement he said he read and wrote a lot, and tried to engage the guard in conversation. He said he was comforted to know that there was a large international movement to free him. We discussed the usual, politics, religion and nuclear technology. All in all, he was a very soft-spoken and humble fellow, with a strong sense of moral courage. He is certainly inspirational, and I was excited to meet a celebrity in the international peace scene.