Vanunu
April 28, 2004
Ashkelon is a prosperous small town in Israel. The local shopping mall is unremarkable by the standards of any country, piled high with consumer goods and bored teenagers choosing one designer clothing item over another. The only difference with shopping malls in any other small western town is the high level of security, with bags searched at the entrances and identity papers required from all shoppers.
Less than 10 kms down the road there is a huge fence and massive mined security points, the borders of Gaza. Behind the fence are the Palestinians, three quarters of whom are out of work, subsisting on less than two dollars a day and infant mortality at levels associated with sub Saharan Africa. Surrounded by a massive fence, over-flown by jet fighters and gun boats along the coast, it is indeed an open prison. Inside, a series of Israeli settlements bisect the strip and make movement for Palestinians almost impossible.
For the past seventeen years the industrial estate a few minutes out of town has been home to a prisoner of conscience, Mordechai Vanunu. Thirteen of those years were spent in solitary confinement. His crime was to reveal to the world in 1988 that Israel was producing its own nuclear weapons.
The town of Ashkelon for most of the past two decades has been as unconcerned about the treatment of Mordechai, as it has been about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza.
The background to the story is now well known. Mordechai was made redundant from the Damona Research establishment, and traveled the world. After revealing his story to a journalist in Australia he came to Britain for its publication in the Sunday Times and was enticed to Italy by a “friend”, and then grabbed by Mossad and illegally taken to a Military Tribunal in Israel, where he was jailed.
A small number of people in Israel have stood by him throughout this long nightmare and their steadfastness in the face of intimidation is remarkable. Most of the media in Israel have labeled him a “traitor” and this has encouraged a mad xenophobia against him and his supporters. In the wider world his supporters were the Vanunu campaign in Britain, and huge tributes are due to Ernest Rodker and David Polden for unstinting work for years, and to Susanna Yorke for her support. His adoptive parents, the Eloffs from the USA, have given him hope as have his brothers Meir and Ashar.
As we, an international delegation made its way to the prison on the 21st April, the appointed day for his release, there was tension on the bus; how had he coped and what would the opposition be like?
We assembled opposite the gates and were soon joined by a burly crowd of zealots who wanted Mordechai executed and carried placards denouncing him as a traitor. Like scenes out of an intolerant mid western town, pick up trucks drove by and shouted abuse; individuals confronted us, and the large media presence media. There was an enthusiastic chant by young Israelis in Hebrew, of a football style refrain, ” Vanunu is a hero, da de da…” This continued for several hours until the appointed hour, when he emerged and gave an impromptu statement outside the gates to the prison building, but behind the perimeter wall. This was remarkable by any standards – he apologised for nothing, pledged to campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons, thanked supporters, denounced the restrictions on his freedom and supported the Palestinian people. In a few sentences he had attacked all the taboos of Israeli society.
As his car finally made it to the road he held has hand to the window, as he had all these years ago in desperation. Police incompetence ensured for a short time his car was stationery in front of the angry crowd of antis, at which point Mordechai was at serious risk of attack. As his car eventually got away, a pick up truck drove by with a slogan scrawled over large cardboard sheets proclaiming “Vanunu is Hitler number two”.
Mordechai traveled to Jerusalem and went directly to the beautiful St Georges Anglican cathedral which has a pilgrim’s guest house in the compound. Meeting him later that day all the international delegations were struck by his fitness, calm and warmth. Greeting each of dozens of guests he seemed to know the names of many. I asked him how, and he explained he had years of looking at photos of demonstrations in his support.
Still under restrictions, for Mordechai the nightmare continues as he cannot travel abroad, move without prior Police approval, talk to journalists or foreigners. The latter restrictions were broken at once and the others are being challenged in the Israeli courts, but it will take an enormous international effort to help Mordechai make the last leap to freedom.
One chapter in the long story of peace campaigners ends, and another opens. Vanunu took a bold and principled decision to tell the truth to the world, and paid a terrible price with the loss of freedom and incarceration designed to break the spirit – at the end of this, he is stronger and has a moral voice in the world. There are those who build walls to prevent Palestinians living freely and develop weapons of mass destruction, and there is one man who simply told it like it was? The latter is by far the stronger, and certainly the moral voice of the world.
Vanunu now encompasses two huge issues. By speaking in support of the Palestinians he has given a focus and a fillip to the small but very dedicated Israeli peace campaigners. By being released he has focused attention on the nuclear issue.
New York is the scene for the next ten days of the preparatory committee for the Non Proliferation Treaty Review due next year. It is past time that Israel should sign it, and thus open itself to inspection; after all, Britain and the USA went to war in Iraq allegedly over WMDs and the right of the rest of the world to inspect. Those who support nuclear weapons claim they are needed for self defence. This ludicrous argument is easily destroyed in a big power context, in the case of Israel where is the threat.
A society full of security checks and fear is not made safer by the ability to kill millions. Over the fence, behind the wall there are Palestinians who want water, health care, education, land and life but are imprisoned by restrictions, land grabbing and first world missiles. Real security comes from justice and tolerance, Vanunu has taught us that.
Palestine and peace
April 21, 2004
On Monday morning, walking along the Via Dolarosa in Jerusalem was an eerie experience; only food shops were open, everything else barred and bolted as disconsolate people walked by. Yet another blow against Palestinian self-esteem. Almost biblical in its quiet this was not just another day in Palestine.
The assassination of Abdul Aziz Rentissi had struck a chord with everyone, Hamas supporters and others alike. The Israeli policy of assassinating the leaders of Hamas has not isolated the organisation in any way. Quite the reverse; the illegal act of selective assassination has united the people as the enormous demonstrations show.
In Ramallah on Monday evening all the political groupings joined hands to condemn the assassination, a very strong show of unity. It is not that the mass of Palestinian people have suddenly become converts to suicide bombing, they haven’t. What has happened is that the new Sharon doctrine endorsed by Bush and Blair is being described as a new Balfour declaration by the Palestinian papers. Ariel Sharon’s plan is to withdraw from Gaza and leave the bulk of the settlements in the West Bank intact, continue building the wall and thus losing more Palestinian land.
Gaza, the most densely populated and one of the poorest places on the earth will continue to be dependent on Israel for electricity and water. In effect, an open prison with tanks at every border, with crossing points and gun ships pointing towards the shore. Planes fly overhead and with devastating accuracy can take out any building and indeed any person, as Rantisi’s predecessor found out in the last attack on Hamas.
On the West Bank the maps show what is happening. Far from withdrawing to the borders that existed before the 1967 war, the settlements have grown apace, taking the best land and water resources. The wall, euphemistically described as a ‘fence’ by many of the media not only takes yet more land it also encircled whole towns and communities, cuts farmers from their land and makes the West Bank a closed prison to those communities unlucky enough to live alongside it.
Talking to ordinary Palestinian people in the streets and in cafes, there is a feeling of bewilderment. Sharon, a right wing ideologue proposes yet more expansion into Palestine, against all the agreements and processes of the past 20 years and suddenly gets the full-hearted consent of the US President and endorsement by the British Prime Minister. What hope is there, they ask, for anyone if this is the way forward by the west?
The massacres of Sabra and Chatilla in 1982, in which Sharon is deeply implicated resulted in expulsion of the PLO leadership to Tunis. Eventually the historic compromise of the PLO gave the basis for a two state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The settlement policy has destroyed most of the opportunities for peace, and the blanket financial and military support for Israel by the USA has encouraged the ultra Zionists in their belief that they can get away with anything.
Thus there is a continuum of politics. Assassinations by Israel in the name of security are rewarded with endorsement of expansion, which in turn leads to another assassination. At the end of the three day mourning period, who knows what will happen.
Humiliation and encirclement of a people are not conducive to a rational way forward. The deaths of Israeli citizens by suicide bombing is as wrong as the assassination policy, yet the spiral of violence has a logic of its own, and the West is complicit in all this.
If anyone doubts the feelings of ordinary Palestinians, a description of daily life should suffice. Ramallah is, in reality, a few minutes drive from Jerusalem. A daily journey by thousands who live and work in either city is a nightmare of bus, walk and bus. In between the two bus journeys lies a check point with queues of people and vehicles waiting for an arrogant security guard to examine papers and delay people. After a hard day’s work people don’t take kindly to arbitrary and unnecessary abuse of power. At a wider level the poverty and ill health of many Palestinians is a product of insecurity and Israeli aggression.
Peace is impossible without justice and that is where the crucial role of the US and Britain comes in. The policy of unwavering support for Israeli expansion has brought the current impasse. At the very least, Britain should condemn the Sharon plan and support guarantees for the security of Palestinian people. That in turn will encourage the Israeli peace movement and further isolate Sharon and his tactics.
This morning I visited the municipality of NILIN which once had a population of 16,000, many of whom are now forced to live in Jordan and the land area has been decimated by a combination of Israeli settlements and the construction of the security wall, destroying 400 yr old olive trees and taking land away from people who have farmed it for decades. This has led to huge protests, and following Bush’s support of the Sharon wall plan, construction work is now proceeding a pace, and more Palestinian people are destined to a life of landless poverty as a result. It is fair to say that. Many Palestinians have had a lifetime of refugee camps and aid trucks, when they should have had dignity and respect.
Ramallah April 20th 2004
Meltdown in Iraq?
April 14, 2004
One year after the “liberation” of Iraq a cursory glance over a week of headlines tells an incredible story of a policy of the US and UK that has failed to win the “peace” and a significant turn in strategy.
A week in Fallujah has seen over 600 civilians die, more US service people killed around the country and widespread hostage taking.
The Western media has fed a diet of news analysis that there are huge differences between Sunni and Shia groups and that the appointed Governing council has widespread support. Significantly as civilians evacuated themselves from Fallujah to Baghdad they were welcomed by the population in a Shia community and a joint service at the Mosque called for the occupying forces to leave Iraq: A unity against the American presence far greater than the supposed differences the western media are reporting.
Whilst one has to be careful in reading too much into current headlines, there have been some significant changes, not only in the war in Iraq but also in the strategy adopted by the occupying forces.
Faced with uprisings all over the country, the occupying forces have entered into negotiations with various Iraqi groups, and even agreed on short term ceasefires and undertakings to keep US troops out of certain areas and cities; a very significant climb down. On Monday morning at 03.00 the BBC news website was reporting that Iraqi forces (trained in Jordan to be the nascent national army of the future) were refusing to go into Fallujah on the grounds that they were not trained to fight fellow Iraqis. This amounts to mutiny, which went unchallenged by either the Americans or the Governing Council. Desperate to be seen doing something, the Governing Council rushed to Fallujah to broker a ceasefire between the Americans and the local fighters.
It is difficult to differentiate between opportunist politicians trying to present themselves as independent of the people who appointed them, namely the US Army, and the whole Governing Council apparatus desperate to preserve a role for itself as occupying powers, openly negotiate with their enemies. Usually negotiation by occupying powers is a sign of their weakness, not their strength.
Hostage taking is always grim and brutal, and appalling for the victims. The reaction, whilst tough on the surface by Japan and the US, has clearly resulted in negotiations that have lead to some releases and thus enhanced power for the groups doing it. The Chinese hostages were quickly released but others have been less fortunate. Any foreign worker is now a potential target; pre hostage taking the normal security fee was reported at £6,000 per day for Western businessmen.
The response in Japan has not been a rush of national support behind the Government’s controversial decision to send troops to Iraq but peace demands that they come home. The Government has tried to claim that they are only involved in rebuilding the country and negotiated for the release of their nationals. Whilst Italian special forces have released the sole British hostage so far the real result has been a rush to the airport in Baghdad as every foreign national contemplates leaving the indiscriminate chaos that the resistance has brought.
The last week seems to have brought a significant change in the situation; despite killing six hundred civilians in a week and using helicopter gunships in Fallujah the US forces have not regained control and have now negotiated limited ceasefires. They have also demanded 10,000 more combat troops to come from the USA.
Internationally the US is more isolated than ever as Iraq looks more and more like Beirut in the 1980s; Tony Blair’s continued his subservient role to Bush is isolating Britain still further as he declares we must not flinch. With 10,000 Iraqi’s already dead and coalition deaths over 700 one wonders how many more must die before the policy is seen as immoral and wrong.
But here things are unravelling for Bush. Condoleeza Rice gave limited evidence to the Congressional inquiry and confirmed that Bush was warned about Al Queda and a threat to mainland USA. but seems to have ignored it before September 11th 2001. Aznar in Spain ignored the evidence of the Madrid bombings and paid a big political price.
Tony Blair, in the safety and security of Bermuda seems ignorant of ordinary opinion in the Labour Party or Britain as a whole. He seems to have forgotten that the anti war movement has mobilised and motivated more people than any other issue for years, and will continue to.
The issue of solidarity with the Iraqi people is important and practical. Before the war peace observers went to Iraq to try and prevent bombing of civilian areas. These brave people, as peace monitors in Palestine have also done, have saved lives and done something tangible.
Solidarity with the Trade Union and progressive movements is important and vital, but also providing political space for the wide variety of political opinion in Iraq that has been ignored by the occupying powers and therefore not represented in the Governing Council.
Focus on the Global South has done valuable work in uniting opinion worldwide and issued a call to action.
In the statement headed by Walden Bello of the Philippines, (winner of last year’s Right to Livelihood award, an alternative to the Nobel prize), the signatories affirm the right of Iraqis to be free of occupation and to decide the course of their own history. It calls for elections to be held without the interference of the occupying forces.
The statement also supports the call of the Jakarta Peace Assembly, the European Social Forum and the Anti War Assembly at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, for an open assembly for all sections of Iraqi society to debate their future. The call for an end to the occupation is supported by a wide range of signatories including Dennis Brutus from South Africa, Noam Chomsky, Susan George and Naomi Klein. Significantly Hans Von Sponeck, the former UN Humanitarian Commissioner to Iraq, has also signed.
There is an arrogant western assumption that having illegally invaded Iraq it is impossible to withdraw western forces as the country could not control itself. An assembly would at least give free rein to Iraqi opinion and enable an Iraqi Government to decide what international support it needed through the United Nations.
History often repeats itself. Iraq was occupied an invaded, manipulated and condemned for much of its history since the end of the Ottoman. The British have three times occupied parts of the country and always had to withdraw. World opinion has been mobilised against this war like no other, and must continue to be mobilised for peace.
Cleaner London
April 1, 2004
(For Highbury & Islington Gazette)
Traffic seems to be all the rage these days. The papers are full of stories about road hunts, controlled parking zones, and traffic merging schemes.
Islington suffers from a huge amount of through traffic, as do most inner London boroughs and consequently, many of our children suffer from the dangers of this traffic, and also with asthma and other respiratory complaints, many of which are associated with traffic fumes.
Every city in Britain suffers from traffic problems but only London has, thus far, the real courage to deal with it. The government introduced legislation which allowed local authorities to introduce charging schemes to reduce the amount of traffic in inner London. Ken Livingston had the political courage to stand for election on a policy of introducing congestion charging and seeing it through, with the result that there are at least 30,000 less car journeys per day going in and out of central London. This totals over 7 million car journeys per year, minus the pollution that goes with them! There has also been a knock on effect of less traffic alongside the fringes of the congestion zone, and so traffic on the whole looks like being reduced. We are the only city in the world to have achieved this – no mean feat.
Ken and Transport for London have proposed an extension of the congestion charging zone to include Kensington and Chelsea to the west of the zone, and there is a deeply opportunist campaign being run by the Tories (in favour of high levels of traffic) and the Lib Dems against this extension. The reality is, if we want a cleaner and safer city, there has to be less traffic on the roads, and fewer unnecessary journeys. Writing as someone who spends a great deal of time on a bicycle I value cycle lanes, though I do wish they didn’t end at what seems like every junction. Unfortunately bicycle thieves are just as active, but the new bicycle marking scheme which the local police are supporting (in cooperation with the cycle shops) is working very well.
It’s very easy to knock speed humps and speed tables and whilst I think these things should be properly designed and properly sited, if we didn’t have them on our residential roads, too many cars would go too fast, and more children and older pedestrians would suffer injury as a result of thoughtless dangerous driving. I look forward to the day when we have a much wider application of the 20 mile limit on residential roads and outside schools.
The whole debate on traffic has in my memory gone full circle. When I first became involved in political activity in north London in the 1970s, we were fighting tooth and nail against the widening of the Archway road, from the Archway Bridge northwards, which would have had the effect of bringing even more traffic into London – that plan was defeated by local action and effective use of the public inquiry system. Next came the Tory government’s plans for the East London Line assessment study which would have resulted in a road being built along the Parkland walk, and further through Islington, bringing yet more traffic.
Whilst nobody welcomes extra roadworks, I think it is good that in London, probably for the first time ever, we are seeing an increase in pavement and pedestrian size space, and a feeling that one can move around and breathe in parts of the city which use to be entirely congested with traffic. A traffic-free Trafalgar Square is a great improvement.
Buses and Public Transport
However, it is very obvious that if we are to radically improve our city, reducing traffic volumes and traffic speed is only part of it. There has to be much better, usable and cheaper forms of public transport. Whilst limited to control of the buses rather than the underground, I think Ken Livingston has done really well in increasing the frequency of buses, and the innovation of new designs catering for disabled and elderly and children. New and imaginative bus routes have proved to be very successful and very popular. The new major rail and tram lines needed in London are very expensive to introduce, and along with other London MPs I have been pushing very hard to persuade to ensure funding for the Crossrail initiative is available. This would enable the building of a deep railway line under central London, emerging in Stratford. I am also pushing for funding for taking the East London line extension to Highbury and Islington with a possibility of trains also running into Finsbury Park Station using existing tracks.
The government must understand that to ensure London’s continued success as a major city, we have to get much better public transport by rail up and running, as well as the improvements that have already happened. It is more than unfortunate that the government insisted on pushing through the PPP for refurbishment of a number of the deep tube lines, thus ending the unitary management structure that existed before. Personally I welcome the development of tram lines as they are quicker and cheaper to introduce than tube lines, and where tram routes have been introduced they have proved to be very popular eg Manchester. I look forward to the new tram lines from Camberwell to Camden.
