Campaign to Free Vanunu launched

Campaign to Free Vanunu launched

By Linda Kaucher

SYDNEY — An Australian campaign to free Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli anti-nuclear whistle-blower, was launched here last week.

Vanunu was kidnapped from Italy, convicted of treason in a secret trial and sentenced to 18 years in jail after he revealed details about Israel's nuclear weapons program to the world.

He has spent the last 10 years in solitary confinement. Amnesty International and Professor Joseph Rotblat, the 1995 Nobel prize-winning nuclear physicist, have called for his release.

The Australian group's awareness-raising activities, supporting campaigns in the UK, USA and Sweden, will focus on a speaking tour by Sam Day, the coordinator of the US Campaign to Free Vanunu. Day will be available to speak in Sydney from June 1 to 7, and to speak elsewhere the following week, before leaving for New Zealand.

On May 25, a service will be held for Vanunu at St John's Church, Darlinghurst, at 9.30am, followed by a march to the Israeli consulate, where a rally will be held at 11.30am.

The aim of these activities is to put pressure on the Israeli government to release Vanunu, and on the Australian government to support this demand. A fax and letter campaign to the Israeli government, on the first day of each month, is also proposed.

From GLW issue 268