Nuclear whistleblower asks to renounce citizenship [1]
By BEN HARTMAN, 07/05/2011
Mordechai Vanunu tells 'Post' no country has offered him asylum but that if he is allowed to leave "I will get on first flight anywhere out of here."
Nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu on Saturday demanded that Israel rescind his citizenship in keeping with a new law that strips Israelis convicted of treason of their citizenship.
In a letter written to Interior Minister Eli Yishai and released to the media on Saturday Vanunu, a Beersheba native, says "I have no interest in Israeli citizenship, I don't want to go on living here." Rest of the article at the Jerusalem Post [1]
Vanunu Mordechai's letter [2].
May 5TH 2011
To:
MK Mr. Eli Yishai
Minister of Interior
The State of Israel
Re: Revoking my Israeli Citizenship
I am Mordechai Vanunu that was kidnapped from Rome on September 30, 1986 by The Israeli Secret Services.
I was tried by The Jerusalem District Court and convicted of Aggravated Espionage, High Treason and Assisting the Enemy and I was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. This followed an interview I gave to The London Sunday Times regarding the secret production of nuclear weapons materials in Israel.
I fulfilled the democratic principal of the right of the public to know.
I have served 18 years in Ashkelon Prison, mostly in solitary confinement.
I was released on 21 April 2004 with severe restrictions imposed by the Israeli Government.
Seven years past and the restrictions had been renewed again and again relying on The Emergency Laws from 1945.
Since my release I have lived 6 years in East Jerusalem and since September 2010 I live in Tel Aviv.
On June 1986 I was baptized to the Anglican Church.
Recently, (28.3.2011), the Knesset passed a new law that revokes the citizenship of anyone who was convicted of espionage or treason.
25 years I am demanding and waiting to have my full freedom restored.
This law should be applied to my case and I am willing for my citizenship to be revoked and canceled.
I am writing to you today asking the state of Israel to cancel my citizenship.
This desire is not new and is not recent, but now it is supported by the new law to revoke citizenship .
I am asking and expecting the enforcement of this law to its letter and revoke my Israeli citizenship.
This law applies to me and I am ready for my citizenship to be canceled.
I don't have another citizenship but I would be able to get one easily during my forced stay here and for sure at the moment that I am allowed to leave.
In any case I here declare that my wish was and still is to cancel/revoke, in fact, my Israeli citizenship.
After all the 'treatment' that I have received from the State of Israel and its citizens, I do not feel, here, as a citizen or how a citizen should feel, I feel as an unwellcome citizen and treated as such by the state of Israel and its citizens.
I am called and shouted at as a spy, 'The Atom Spy', and a traitor by the Israeli media and in the streets of Israel.
I am harassed and persecuted as the enemy of the state for 25 years.
I feel I am still imprisoned, still held as a hostage, by the state and its government.
After 25 years of ongoing, many and very hard punishments by the State of Israel, I wish the end to all punishments and my suffering, and wish the realization of the basic human right of freedom.
I would like to exercise my right to freedom of conscience, my right to choose not to be a citizen of Israel.
I have no interest in Israeli citizenship; I do not want to live here.
I ask you to cancel/revoke my citizenship here and now.
I ask you to let me be free from Israel as our dislike is mutual.
I HAVE NO SECRETS!
EVERYTHING I KNEW THAN, I HAVE PASSED ON TO THE ENGLISH PAPER IN 1986!!
IT IS TIME TO ALLOW ME TO LEAVE ISRAEL AFTER A QUARTER CENTURY OF IMPRISONMENT!
Mordechai Vanunu.
May 5th 2011
Tel-Aviv
Copies to Prime M, Netanyho.
Foreign M, Liberman.
Defence M Barak.
Justice M, Neaman.
President Peres..