[GushShalom] Protest at prison gate + the danger of speaking

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM  pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 www.gush-shalom.org

[Here follow an action report and two articles. They have in common that 
each touches upon one of the nightmares of the Israeli government: the 
growing refusal to serve the occupation;  the possibility that talking peace 
may be inavoidable; the chance that Vanunu will open his mouth.]

[]  Hundreds demonstrate on hill overlooking Military Prison-6
[]  For Sharon's Israel, peace is the biggest danger - Avnery's weekly
[]  How to keep Vanunu from telling what everybody knows

                                \\// //\\ \\// //\\ \\//      

[]  Hundreds demonstrate on hill overlooking Military Prison-6

òáøéú òì ôé á÷ùä

Climbing the mountain opposite Military Prison 6 at Atlit, from where 
protesters could be visible (and audible) inside the prison, is a tradition 
going back to the time of Lebanon War - before many of today's refusniks 
were born. But last week's verdict condemning five young people to spend 
a whole year behind these grey prison walls there gave today's protest a 
feeling of special urgency, and quite a few people had come who were not 
seen at the mountain before.  The call of Yesh Gvul and the Refusnik 
Parents' Forum was joined by ourselves of  Gush Shalom as well as 
Courage to Refuse and Ta'ayush. Altogether,  hundreds of  people - 
among them two Knesset Members, Barake and Makhoul - traveled hours 
in order to climb the rocky slopes, now slippery with the past few days' 
rainfall. 

Among the crowd were parents and grandparents and siblings and some 
girlfriends of the prisoners. Dr. Gadi Elgazi was there, who was sentenced 
to a year back in 1981 and got pardoned after half a year of intensive 
campaigning. And quite a few refusnik prisoners from more recent years. 
Yoni Ben Artzi had come - set free just a few days ago after a year and half 
behind bars, with the military authorities apparently about to grant him the 
long-denied CO status. If army intended to create a split in the refusers' 
ranks by making this gesture at the same time that the Five were dealt with 
so harshly, it failed - Ben Artzi was warmly greeted and congratulated.

There were also quite a few potential prisoners, on whom the next steps in 
the struggle may depend. Many signatories of the Shministim (highschool 
seniors) letter of refusal were there. Some of them,  scheduled for 
conscription within a few months, were especially indignant and defiant: 
"The judges wanted to frighten us by imposing such a long term on the 
Five. Well, we are not frightened of prison, they will soon see we're not!". 
This was followed by the familiar strains of "No thank you, Mr. Sharon/Go 
yourself to Hebron/damn your schemes all to Hell/off we go to prison 
cell". 
"Stop - Apartheid Ahead" was the big banner of Yesh Gvul, and Courage 
to Refuse had "Refusal to the Occupation is Zionism". And there were 
smaller, hand-painted signs: "Long live the refusers",   "We are all 
refusers", "Release the refusers - imprison the ministers!". A big rainbow 
flag fluttered above, with the big word "Pace" - Italian for "Peace". "These 
flags were all over Europe during  the Iraq War and later, we should have 
some here too" said the activist who brought it.
An excited shout on the megaphone: "Look at the guard tower on the 
right, and the white shack near it! There are people waving over there, four 
or five!" Were they our five? And then, waving from another part of the 
prison complex, identified by a former prisoner as the officers' enclosure. 
That might have been reserve Captain Dan Tamir, imprisoned for refusal to 
go to the West Bank. (Except for the famous Five, there are six reservists 
in the military prison, on terms of 28 or 35 days each). 
"I know how it feels to be in there and see a demonstration up here on the 
mountain. I know what a wonderful warm feeling of support it gives" said 
Yigal Rosenberg, who spent several months at prison 6 in 2002.
"The military court imposed a whole year's imprisonment on the five who 
refused to take part in occupation and oppression. Soldiers who shot 
unarmed Palestinians to death got a suspended sentence - if they were 
prosecuted at all. Those who killed a five-year old child at Nablus last 
week were not even investigated, much less punished" said Yishai 
Menuchin of Yesh Gvul.
"The army hopes that after the immediate media upsurge, these five young 
people will be forgotten behind the prison wall. We will not let them be 
forgotten, we will maintain an ongoing campaign in the country and all 
over the world, we will not give the military and civil authorities a moment 
of rest " said Alex Ma'or, father of the imprisoned Adam Ma'or; he also 
called upon those present to keep up to date on the struggle by regularly 
visiting the new website - http://www.refuz.org.il -  of the Refusers' Parents 
Forum 

 				***
[]  For Sharon's Israel, peace is the biggest danger - Avnery's weekly

Uri Avnery
10/1/04
				A Fox called Lion

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     You really can't rely on these Arabs.
     Take this fellow, Qaddafi. For decades he played the clown. The whole 
world laughed at him (except when he downed a French plane in Chad and 
the Pan-Am jet over Lockerbie.)  His Libya was a "rogue state", an 
international pariah. He was working on Weapons of Mass Destruction. 
The Americans hated him, and from time to time bombed him, killing his 
daughter on one such occasions.
      You could rely on good old Qaddafi. He supplied us with an alibi for 
producing all kinds of interesting weapons. Everybody understood that 
with such people around, Israel needs the doomsday weapon, and that it's 
useless to talk about peace.
     And then, suddenly…
     Suddenly Qaddafi becomes the darling of the world. Look at him, in his 
Bedouin robes: a serious man, a sober and pragmatic statesman. Pays a 
fortune to the families of the victims in the planes he has downed. Invites 
the Americans along to see for themselves how he destroys his stock of 
WMD. Flatters President Bush. Makes advances to Israel. Tomorrow - 
God forbid! - he may invite Bush to mediate between himself and his dear 
colleague, Ariel Sharon.    
     If Bush starts to pamper Qaddafi, he will coddle Sharon less. He might 
get the idea that Israel, too, get rid of its Weapons of Mass Destruction. 
Perish the thought!
     Or take Iran. Well, they aren't really Arabs, but they are Muslims, and 
all Muslims are the same, aren't they? Anti-Semites. Israel-haters. Plotting 
to destroy us.
     One used to be able to rely on Iran. There is always somebody there 
shouting "Death to America! Death to Israel!" They are trying to produce 
nuclear bombs. They vow to bury the Great Satan together with the Small 
Satan (us). True, we did sell them some arms, quite quietly, with American 
blessing (see: Irangate), but that doesn't count. President Bush even 
included them in his "Axis of Evil". We were hoping that after the 
occupation of Iraq, the Americans would deal with them. Between 
Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran sits like an almond between the jaws of a 
nutcracker.
     And then, suddenly…
     Suddenly Iran is dripping honey. They thank the Americans for the 
generous assistance sent to the victims of the big earthquake. They invite 
international inspectors to check their nuclear installations.
     And the Americans - who can believe it? - let themselves be seduced. 
They emit conciliatory noises. And there are already some people who 
expect us to behave like Libya and Iran, to open our nuclear installations 
to inspection. Perish the thought!
     But all this is nothing compared to Syria.
     If there was one Arab nation you could rely on without reservation it 
was the Syrians. Born Israel-haters. Tough. Uncompromising. Stockpiling 
chemical and biological weapons. True, they respect the cease-fire line 
with Israel, but they use the Hizbollah against us instead. And they play 
host to the headquarters of the militant Palestinian organizations in 
Damascus.
     The Bush administration has officially labeled Syria a terrorist state. It 
has targeted them. Our friends in the Pentagon, Wolfowitz and the other 
Neo-Zionists, promised us that Syria would be the next candidate for an 
American invasion, right after Iraq. Our good friends, the Turks, were also 
to join in the party. After all, they have had an ongoing quarrel with Syria 
since the late 1930s, when the French (who controlled Syria at the time) 
gave them the Syrian Alexandretta region. And this conflict deepened 
even more when Syria began supporting the Kurdish revolt in Turkey and 
demanded a bigger share of the Euphrates water.
     And now, suddenly…    
     Suddenly this youngster, Bashar, changes direction overnight. 
Suddenly al-Assad ("the Lion") turns into al-Taleb ("the Fox"). Says he 
wants peace. Wants to help the Americans. Invites Israel to renew 
negotiations. Visits Turkey and forges an alliance with them against 
Kurdish independence in northern Iraq.
     That is dangerous. Terribly dangerous. The American might pressure 
us to make peace with Syria and give the Golan back to them. True, up to 
now, the Americans have reacted coolly to the Syrian overtures, but that 
may change. As the American elections draw nearer, and Bush's 
adversaries increasingly paint the Iraq war as one big fiasco, Bush will be 
keen to demonstrate that the war was actually an enormous success. To 
wit: It has created a New Middle East (alas, without Shimon Peres). The 
wicked states, Iran, Syria and Libya, have forsaken their bad old ways and 
are basking in the Pax Americana. All the Weapons of Mass Destruction 
in the region have been abolished, except for Israel's.
     No wonder the Sharon government is in a dilemma. They are doing 
what they can to foil this plot. They publish Qaddafi's overtures, so as to 
embarrass him into denying them. They reject Assad's peace stratagem. 
"Don't run and jump!" Sharon admonished his ministers this week, 
commanding them not to get excited about it. Assad is not serious. He 
only wants to suck up to the Americans. He wants to use us in order to 
reach Bush. For him, Israel is only "a stair of the White House", as Sharon 
put it.
     Defeatists might say: let's seize the opportunity. Assad is weak? Assad 
is afraid? Assad want to appease the Americans? All the better, that is the 
opportunity to make peace. What have we got to lose? If Assad is serious, 
we can put an end to our conflict with a dangerous enemy. And if he isn't, 
we will unmask him. 
     (The same defeatists proposed in 1972, too, that we should accept the 
peace offers sent by Anwar Sadat via the UN emissary, Gunnar Jaring. But 
Israel had a tough leader, Golda Meir, who rejected them "out of hand". 
True, this led to the Yom-Kippur war and the deaths of some 2000 young 
Israelis, not to mention the tens of thousands of Egyptians and Syrians, 
but it certainly screwed the defeatists.)
     Sharon will not accept the Syrian proposal, because that might lead to 
peace. And peace with the Syrians would mean the return of the Golan and 
the dismantling of all the settlements there. That would be awful. It would 
also be a dangerous precedent for the Palestinians. 
     Bashar Assad, the fox in lion's clothing, wants to renew the 
negotiations at the point where they were broken off by Ehud Barak. At 
the time, Barak just managed to save himself from the threat of peace in the 
nick of time. Assad Sr. would accept nothing less than regaining the 
shores of Lake Tiberias (the June 4, 1967 line) instead of staying ten 
meters short of it (the 1949 line). Barak couldn't stand the idea of Assad 
dipping his long feet in the waters of this lake. Now Assad Jr. is hinting 
that he is prepared to forgo the pleasure. He can dip his long feet 
somewhere else. Perhaps in the waters of the Euphrates.
     Sharon will not repeat the mistake of Barak, who barely extricated 
himself by the skin of his teeth. He will not start negotiations at all. And 
indeed, if Assad is weak, why negotiate with him?
     Catch 23: If the Arabs are strong, you can't make peace with them. You 
have to defeat them. And if the Arabs are weak, there is no need to make 
peace with them. Why offer them anything?
     Catch 24: If the Arabs say they want war, you have to believe them.  
But if the Arabs say they want peace, they are clearly lying. And how can 
you make peace with liars?    
				***

[]   How to keep Vanunu from telling what everybody knows

[These days both mass circulation papers, Ma'ariv and Yediot Aharonot 
write a lot about what life Mordechai Vanunu can expect after his release 
from the 18-year prison sentence. Rayna Moss, a years-long anti-nuclear 
activist sent us the following translation.]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Sat, 10 Jan 2004 04:07:46 +0200
From:           	rayna moss <legalese at netvision.net.il>

úøâåí îéãéòåú àçøåðåú ùì éåí çîéùé 

Atomic Problem
Yediot Ahronot (p. 4) by Ronen Bergman --  Jan. 8     	

Three years ago I went to Shikma Prison in Ashkelon to interview an Arab prisoner. And there, in
the middle of the well-tended garden made by the prisoners, I saw him-Mordechai Vanunu.

    For a short moment I saw a bucolic scene, as if taken from some other reality. A serene, smilin
g man, sitting on a bench in a garden and
reading Nietzsche in English. I approached him and extended my hand. Vanunu smiled and shook my han
d weakly. "Pleased to meet you, my name is
Ronen," I said. "I'm Motti," the most confined prisoner in the State of Israel replied. Before we c
ould continue to talk, screaming wardens
rushed over and grabbed him away from what could have been an exclusive interview.

    Just like the picture in the garden was misleading, so too, those who think that the war over I
srael's ambiguity has died down, are 
misled. This war is being waged full steam on a number of fronts. One of the most important is abou
t to flare up. Mordechai Vanunu, the atomic
spy who revealed Israel's nuclear secrets  to the entire world, is about to complete the 18 year se
ntence he was given and to go free.


Concern that Vanunu Will Want Revenge

    The Defense Ministry and the Justice Ministry began three years ago to think what to do about V
anunu. As Yehiel Horev, in charge of
security at the Defense Ministry and responsible for nuclear ambiguity, says, Vanunu is like a bull
 who has already tasted blood. He has never
expressed remorse, he has only continued to justify his acts, he has accrued great anger toward the
 State of Israel for imprisoning him under
harsh conditions for so many years, and according to some versions, has lost his reason  in the cou
rse of those long years.

    The security establishment is almost certain that if Vanunu is allowed to go on his way, he wil
l leave Israel (as he has said he 
will do, in order to teach history in the US) and  begin to sing. 
    To prevent this future problem from coming true, the Justice Ministry and Defense Ministry are 
examining a number of 
possibilities, all based on the emergency regulations. One possibility, not highly likely, came up 
in the first meetings, and that
is to put Vanunu under administrative detention, as is done to Palestinian wanted men.

    This is problematic from a number off aspects. First, such a move would arouse great protest in
 Israel and in the world, since this 
would mean continuing his imprisonment, which was completed in full. Not only that, since the secur
ity establishment does not believe the danger
Vanunu poses will pass one day, this means he would have to be held in detention until his dying da
y.

    Another possibility, more likely, is based on the regulation that allows the interior minister 
to stop a person from leaving the 
country. Vanunu could then be released tomorrow, and if he again lets his tongue loose, he can be t
ried and thrown into jail.

    The last time use was made of this Draconian measure was when the previous interior minister, E
li Yishai, prevented the head of the 
Islamic Movement, Sheikh Raed Salah, from leaving the country because of the investigation against 
the Islamic Movement.

    The State Attorney's Office is considering  making use of another regulation as well, making it
 possible to restrict the movements of
somebody to a specific geographical location in Israel. Use of this rule was made in the past again
st extreme right wing activists and underworld
figures.


Why Are They Scared of Him?
 
   Why, actually, are they so afraid of Vanunu? The whole issue of nuclear ambiguity is in fact a g
ame of let's pretend, carried to 
absurdity. On the face of it, what we have is the most classified secret in the State of Israel. In
 practice, anyone on the globe who is
interested, thinks he knows not only what Israel has, but also where exactly it is storing it.

    Yehiel Horev considers himself as standing on the front line, keeper of the seal of Israel's de
epest secrets. In closed forums, 
Horev compares Israel's ambiguity to a glass of water. "My job," Horev said, "is to ensure that the
 water doesn't spill over the 
glass. Up until the Vanunu affair, the water was at a very low level. The affair caused the water l
evel to rise significantly and caused
Israel great damage, but the water still didn't overflow. If we let certain people act in the matte
r, the water will spill."  Horev watches
the "water level" and every year  publishes a report with an updated "ambiguity index."

    As Horev sees it, the very preoccupation with the Vanunu affair will reawaken the whole nuclear
 issue for an international debate. All
this interest, Horev says, makes the water level rise and therefore affects state security. To mini
mize the damage, Vanunu must be silenced.
The very thought that the nuclear spy will talk on television the day after his release, is Horev's
 nightmare.

    The gist of the problem, Horev believes, is not that he will reveal some detail or another. Van
unu, after all, has already said
everything he knows. The Americans, so the security establishment claims, deliberately ignore what 
Israel does, in exchange for a promise
given them back during Golda Meir's time, to maintain ambiguity.

    This is getting harder and harder: Horev claims that today there are already a great many items
, such as certain kinds of computers, that
Israel finds hard to obtain because of its refusal to sign the NPT. Relinquishing ambiguity will ma
ke this impossible. Horev says that the
principle of ambiguity is even convenient for Egypt: breaking this principle will obligate Egypt to
 cool its relations with Israel even
further.

    On the other hand, other experts contend that since in any case this is a game of let's pretend
, in which the Americans look away 
from what is under their noses, then only an official declaration by Israel about its capabilities 
can dispel the nuclear ambiguity. The fact
is, these experts say-among them Dr. Avner Cohen, who wrote the most comprehensive  book on Israel'
s nuclear history-Vanunu went public in
1986 and even this didn't completely dispel the nuclear ambiguity.

    The battle over Vanunu's fate becomes more significant in light of recent developments in the M
iddle East. Iranian consent, at least on the
surface, to stop enriching uranium and to sign the convention, along with Libya's abandoning its ef
forts to obtain such weapons, puts Israel
with its back to the wall. Today Israel is even considering deviating from its usual policy and sig
ning the convention against the
proliferation of chemical weapons, just so long as it does not have to sign the convention against 
the proliferation of nuclear weapons.


This is How the Nuclear Spy Can Be Restricted

Yedioth Ahronoth (p. 5) by Tova Tzimuki -- On  April 21, in 105 days, the gates of Shikma Prison wi
ll open and atomic spy Mordechai Vanunu
will go free after 18 years. But the closer his release comes, so the confusion and uncertainty in 
the legal establishment increases.

    At this stage, the security establishment is  considering an unofficial appeal to State Attorne
y Edna Arbel to plan the 
restrictions that will be imposed on Vanunu. Arbel has not held a discussion on the matter yet, and
 it is believed it will take place in a
month.

    "We are facing an unprecedented legal challenge," admit senior legal officials. "The problem is
 twofold: it is clear to us that any
means we take to restrict Vanunu's freedom-after he has paid his debt society-will be examined meti
culously by the High Court of Justice and
by human rights organizations all over the world."

    The legal establishment is considering a "package of restrictions" to prevent Vanunu from conti
nuing to reveal the secrets he has. The
following are the possible actions that could be taken: 
    1. Ban on leaving the country. Mordechai would not be able to get a passport on the grounds tha
t he still poses a risk to state 
security. This measure will likely be adopted.
    2. Restricting his movement in Israel. The state may decide that Vanunu can only stay in a cert
ain geographic area. This will make it
easy to monitor him and know with whom he is meeting. This measure will also likely be taken.
    3. Censorship restrictions. The Israeli media may not be allowed to publish interviews with Van
unu in which he reveals sensitive 
information. The likelihood of this measure being taken is high.
    4. Administrative detention. The state could leave Vanunu in prison claiming he still endangers
 security. The likelihood of such an
unusual step is low: the security establishment would find it hard to explain to the High Court of 
Justice why someone who has served his
sentence should not be released. In addition, such a step would arouse international protest.
				***

--
New on the gush Shalom website: Q & A re security:

http://www.gush-shalom.org/security/index.html (òáøéú)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/security/english.html (English)

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http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú/Hebrew)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)

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