Our Chant Arose: "VANUNU IS FREE".

Five Peace People were in Israel for the Release of Mordechai Vanunu Last Week

Five Peace People - Mairead Maguire, Ann Patterson, Barbara Faibish, Kevin Cassidy and Justin Morahan - were outside Ashkelon prison in southern Israel when Mordechai Vanunu walked to freedom on Wednesday 21st April. Here is a vivid account from Justin of his trip. And yes - he was the person spotted on SKY News with the Irish language banner .

"On Wednesday, we started in the early hours, again by coach, to Ashkelon. Now the media presence was immense. During our vigil, hundreds of Vanunu objectors crowded into the space between us and the prison gates, many of them walked in front of our lines with Israeli flags shouting angrily at us in Hebrew, some tearing posters or throwing liquid. A few made their displeasure known to us through the medium of English. Some of these engaged in friendly dialogue. One of them told me I would be welcome at any time into his home. A young girl suddenly appeared beside me and asked where I came from. She held a poster in Hebrew. It read "Betrayed", she said. We exchanged ideas quietly.

Meanwhile, car drivers made rude gestures, there were two anti-Vanunu dances on the open road. In all cases where anyone interfered with any of us the police intervened, sometimes, we felt, too much. The angry shouts around the prison gates increased as Israeli banners multiplied by the minute. The largest was a yellow one saying "SUSANNAH YORK IS A HYPOCRITE". All the while, Ben the trumpet player drowned out the angry invective with his uplifting music. Then eighteen doves floated into the air. When the gates opened - (you may have seen the prisoner emerge. We didn't) - we saw the angry mob and a few placards of a bodyguard that had been chosen to accompany him. Our chant arose "VANUNU IS FREE". He was driven away. Our chants drowned out the angry ones. Then several dozens of eggs were thrown at us from behind by supermarket workers still in their red SPAR-like uniforms. Several hit their targets. We saw crates of eggs being carried from the supermarket. After ten minutes of this we got directions to return to our coach where we closed all windows and drove home."

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Five Peace People, Mairead Maguire, Ann Patterson, Barbara Faibish, Kevin Cassidy and myself, were outside Ashkelon prison in southern Israel when Mordechai Vanunu walked to freedom on Wednesday 21st April. We had flown out of Belfast on Monday morning, arrived in an empty-looking Ben Gurion airport late that night and stayed in the Old Jaffa Hostel.

TUESDAY'S VIGIL
On a sunny Tuesday morning we had non-violence training practice on the roof with a group of forty, then prepared our individual placards and travelled to Ashkelon by coach around midday. There, as part of an international support and welcoming party of about 100, we vigilled for four hours. The world's press and TV were already there, and just as we arrived a group of angry anti-Vanunu people began to shout and roar at us for the cameras. Then there were speeches, chants, songs, interviews and the heartening sound of a trumpet playing "We shall overcome". Felice Coen-Joppa from the US named all the cities that were holding vigils on Wednesday and ended by saying "in Dublin, Ireland, there will be an all-night vigil tonight and a march to Parliament to morrow". All the while we were accommodated behind police barriers on the side of the road farthest from the blue prison gates. Organizers of the vigil in Israel had agreed to this with the local police. The vigil ended without incident.

WEDNESDAY: VANUNU IS FREE
On Wednesday, we started in the early hours, again by coach, to Ashkelon. Now the media presence was immense. During our vigil, hundreds of Vanunu objectors crowded into the space between us and the prison gates, many of them walked in front of our lines with Israeli flags shouting angrily at us in Hebrew, some tearing posters or throwing liquid. A few made their displeasure known to us through the medium of English. Some of these engaged in friendly dialogue. One of them told me I would be welcome at any time into his home. A young girl suddenly appeared beside me and asked where I came from . She held a poster in Hebrew. It read "Betrayed", she said. We exchanged ideas quietly.

Meanwhile, car drivers made rude gestures, there were two anti-Vanunu dances on the open road. In all cases where anyone interfered with any of us the police intervened, sometimes, we felt, too much. The angry shouts around the prison gates increased as Israeli banners multiplied by the minute. The largest was a yellow one saying "SUSANNAH YORK IS A HYPOCRITE". All the while, Ben the trumpet player drowned out the angry invective with his uplifting music. Then eighteen doves floated into the air. When the gates opened, you may have seen the prisoner emerge - we didn't. We saw the angry mob and a few placards of a bodyguard that had been chosen to accompany him. Our chant arose "VANUNU IS FREE". He was driven away. Our chants drowned out the angry ones. Then several dozens of eggs were thrown at us from behind by supermarket workers still in their red SPAR-like uniforms. Several hit their targets. We saw crates being carried of eggs being carri edfrom the supermarket. After ten minutes of this we got directions to return to our coach where we closed all windows and drove home.

We were to meet Mordechai Vanunu in a Jaffa restaurant for a meal of celebration but the venue was too open and dangerous for him so we headed to an unknown destination that evening. It turned out to be Jerusalem. We filed past the cameras into the Church of St George and stood waiting for something to happen. It happened from behind us.Mordechai Vanunu had begun at the end of the line to hug us individually.
He is a warm, strong, unpretentious human being. In his short address he spoke about a nuclear-free world, he wanted to go to London and America (from which most of his supporters had come), we had won, we were the heroes, together we had more to do, he would stay talking to each and every one of us to the early hours of the morning. That was what he did before we returned to Jaffa.

THURSDAY: A VISIT TO PALESTINE
Luckily, a supporter arranges tours and has a Palestinian contact who acts as guide. About nine of us including all five Peace People got to the Wailing Wall, made our secret wishes, then on towards Jericho. On the way, we passed an Israeli checkpoint. ."Be respectful to the soldiers" our English tour organizer told us "it is not their fault". Then a delicious Palestinian meal in a homely and welcoming restaurant, a visit to a refugee centre, and a visit to its local school where we were allowed to have an exchange of views with the pupils. Then on to Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity was not as it was when Caoimhe Butterly, or Mary Kelly, was there. It was gloriously near-empty though the traces from the bullets during the siege were pointed out to us, also the still-broken glass in some of the windows and the damaged eye in the Crusaders' angel high up on the wall. It was enthralling to hear our Palestinian guide,himself an unbeliever, recount the story of the nativity in local terms and
with local details and explanations. Here too we made our secret wishes.

All through this tour our guide talked to us about the present awful situation in Palestine. In his own village no family has escaped without the death of at least one member. There has been constant encroachment on Palestinian land, the face of the map is always changing, what is there to do? He believes in non-violence. We pass close to the Wall, approaching the road from a field. Next week "the wall will have passed across the road and our coach will not be able to pass by". Do people in our countries realise what is happening in his country. How can the full news come to us?
"Some months ago, a young lad from Bethlehem decided to be a suicide bomber, and the Western media reported it like this:
"After two months of calm the peace has been shattered by a suicide bomber".
But during those two months forty five Paestinians had been killed by Israeli soldiers. What kind of calm is that?"
"I don't believe in suicide bombing" ,he added.
On our way home the soldiers at the checkpoint had some young Palestinians spreadeagled on the road. Mairead Maguire approached the soldiers and asked quietly why was it necessary to humiliate the locals like this. "They are all terrorists" one answered and Kevin Cassidy asked "Do you have proof of that?"
And so the argument goes on.
In Jaffa people told us they were willing to die rather than "give up the Israeli state", that incursions into Palestine were necessary for defence, that they felt vulnerable, that nuclear defence was needed, that Vanunu was a traitor. And while we were there the killing continued in Gaza.
And Israel and Palestine are both calling out for help, the one from the position of a Pyrrhic victory and the other from the position of almost helpless victimhood, both fearful.