Interview with Mordechai Vanunu in Gara

Gara: «El poder nuclear de Israel se volverá algún día contra los mismos que lo crearon» (interview with Mordechai Vanunu, in Spanish).

It is a long interview with the man, that true Jewish hero, that unveiled the nuclear arsenal of Israel and paid for it with his freedom and almost with his life. I can't really translate it all but here there are some excerpts:

My revelation helped the world to wake up and prevent that Israel could use the bomb. That was my contribution.

Here [in Israel] democracy is not like in the USA or Europe. Israel has a very special legal system that allows it to do as it wants. A very peculiar democracy as it can be seen in my case: they do not let me to leave the country or talk with foreigners. Democracy means to have human rights: freedom of speech or movement. Nothing like that exists in Israel. Besides the government does not tell the truth to the people. What kind of democracy is this one? (...) The USA confronts Iran because they say that they have the bomb. But Israel also has it and nothing happens to them. So I am happy and proud of being considered a traitor.

For 18 years in prision I was alone in a room. A cell of two by three meters.

For 18 years I was alone. After twelve years they told me I could go out and mix with other prisioners. I said I wanted to be with Palestinian prisioners. They said no. So I was other six years alone.

For the two first years the light was always on, 24 hours a day.

Where did you got the strength from? It is a big question. I do not know. I believe in freedom, in Humankind, in freedom of speech and in following the dictates of our consciousness.

I was not worried about my life. When I took the decission I assumed the risk.

The problem with my liberation is that I cannot leave Israel. I do not feel free in Israel. I used to be in a small jail and now I live in a huge prision. (...) I feel that at any moment they can arrest me and do whatever they want with me. This is not real freedom.

I am not alone, I have many friends. All who live with me now and all who support me are now my family. (...) I live here, in East Jerusalem, in the Palestine area of the city. Besides I have many friends through the world, everywhere.

I feel abandoned by the USA and Europe. Nobody has worried about me. Would I have been a Jew from Europe or Russia, then France, Sweden, England, everyone... would have fought for me. But I am here in Israel with nobody to defend me. I feel abandoned because in all those 18 years they could have taken me out of prision but nobody even tried.

And in a separate comment:

I support the independence of the Basque Country. I agree that all nations in the world, large or small, have the right to self-determination by means of political activism and non-violence.
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