いくつかの記事が米国キャンペーンから4月末に転送されてきたので、かいつまんで御紹介します。

イスラエル政府がバヌヌ氏の釈放後の住所を洩らしたために、厄介なことになっています。英国国教会のアブ・アル・アッサル主教の厚意により、東エルサレムにある聖ジョージ教会にいつまでも居てもいいとはされてはいるものの、彼にとっては窮屈極まりない状態でしょう。

また、バヌヌ氏殺害を企図している極右が存在していることも予想されており、どこまでも彼を追いかけていくと発言している人物の言葉が紹介されています。イスラエル極右にとってバヌヌは暗殺されたイツハク・ラビン元首相以上に危険人物なのでしょう。イスラエルのマーリヴ紙ではバヌヌ氏の処遇についての世論調査をし、「彼を殺すべき」という選択肢まで提示しました。私が刑務所前で経験した人々の彼に対する憎悪の凄まじさは何とも形容しがたいものだったことを思い出します。

イスラエル政府はバヌヌ氏の安全について何の対応もしていません。その上で彼の新たな住所をメディアに知らせたのですから、政府の手をかけずに死んでもらいたいのでしょうか？あるイスラエルの新聞に「ジャック・ルビーを呼べ」という投稿記事が掲載されていたと現地で聞きました。ジャック・ルビーとはご存知のように、ケネディ大統領暗殺の容疑者、オズワルドを暗殺した人物です。

最後の部分では、バヌヌ氏が忘却されてしまうことを望んでいるイスラエル政府の姿勢が垣間見えます。今の日本のマスメディア及び反核平和運動のように、世界がイスラエルの核兵器を殆ど問題にしないでいてくれることが、彼らにとって本当に有難いことなのでしょう。

以下、原文です。

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Anglican Bishop Offers Vanunu Unlimited Sanctuary in Church

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent*
JERUSALEM, April 28 - Anglican Bishop Abu Al Assal has offered Mordechai
Vanunu unlimited sanctuary at St. George's church's guest house in East
Jerusalem. The Bishop, who returned on Monday from a trip to Jordan and
Lebanon, put an end to waves of speculation about Vanunu's future
residence - one report had Vanunu about to move to a larger Anglican church
in Nazareth.
Last night, Bishop Assal held a dinner for Vanunu, to express his support
for the former nuclear technician who was recently freed from Shekma Prison.
Vanunu and his brother Meir have not left the grounds of St. George's church
for days.
This week, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which is representing
Vanunu, and Israeli security officials worked out procedures for examining
journals and letters confiscated from Vanunu's prison cell. Under the terms
of this agreement, ACRI attorney Dan Yakir will receive a special security
clearance, and will be authorized to review the disputed materials.
The most controversial item is a journal which Vanunu says he wrote in 1991,
and which reportedly features written explanations and drawings relating to
production processes at Dimona nuclear reactor.
Yehiel Horev, the chief security officer for the Defense Ministry, has
indicated that this journal justifies the imposition of security
restrictions on Vanunu, on the grounds that he still possesses classified
information about the reactor and the will to disclose it. ACRI says the
journal belongs to Vanunu and that it is needed for the preparation of a
High Court petition calling for lifting current restrictions on him.


Bishop Fears Murder Attempt on Vanunu

By Ian MacKinnon
The uncertain fate of the Israeli whistle-blower given church sanctuary
JERUSALEM, April 27 - The Anglican bishop who has given Mordechai Vanunu,
the Israeli nuclear whistle-blower, sanctuary in a Jerusalem cathedral said
yesterday that he had grave concerns for the life of the Christian convert
amid threats from Jewish extremists.
"My fear is that someone with a gun will come in here and get him," the
Right Rev Riah Abu al-Assal, Bishop of Jerusalem, said. "We wouldn't like
anything to happen to him anywhere in the world, least of all while he's in
the sanctuary of a church."
However, the bishop, who is thought to be under pressure from the Israeli
authorities to evict Mr Vanunu from St George's Cathedral, declined to give
an open-ended commitment to allow him to stay as long as he wished.
Despite real fears for Mr Vanunu's safety from extremists - Yitzak Rabin,
the former Prime Minister, was assassinated by a right-wing Jew - security
around the cathedral's residential compound in east Jerusalem was
non-existent yesterday.
Occasional visitors were buzzed through the electronic front gate and
permitted to wander unchallenged through the high-walled gardens of gravel
paths, roses and ancient olive trees where Mr Vanunu, 50, had been seen
eating lunch in the afternoon sun.
The Israeli Government has not offered protection to Mr Vanunu, who is
widely detested for leaking the country's nuclear secrets to The Sunday
Times in 1986. Tommy Lapid, the Justice Minister, said dismissively that Mr
Vanunu, who was in jail for 18 years, had hundreds of supporters around him
to ensure his safety.
Family members refused to divulge Mr Vanunu's next move, but conceded that
he could not rely on the Church's hospitality indefinitely. Meir Vanunu, his
brother, said they were aware of the cathedral's delicate position in
relation to the Israeli authorities.
A lawyer from Israel's civil rights' association, which is helping Mr Vanunu
to fight restrictions that prevent him leaving the country for at least a
year, said that the case could take a month to come before the Supreme Court
and up to three months to conclude. Part of the petition due to be filed by
the end of the week will include fears for Mr Vanunu's safety if he is
forced to remain in the country for 12 months, particularly since Israel's
security establishment leaked his planned address.
"There's no more hated man in Israel than Mordechai Vanunu," Meir Vanunu
said. "Without a shadow of doubt, while he remains here his life is at risk.
If he can't have security in a church, where can he have it?"
The bishop, who had given up his living quarters to Mr Vanunu while he was
out of the country until his return yesterday, said that he would have to
consult church authorities and Mr Vanunu to decide on the next steps for the
guest.Nevertheless, he believed that it was the Church's duty to provide
sanctuary to those in fear for their lives, just as Jews had received
shelter in convents and monasteries during the Second World War.
"If the Church is not a shelter, where is?" Bishop al-Assal said. "The
Church doesn't offer sanctuary to every homeless person that comes along.
But those in need, like Mordechai Vanunu, who have spent a long time in
prison and suffered for their beliefs, deserve our help."
The bishop said that if the Israeli authorities did not want Mr Vanunu to
remain, they would have to put their demands in writing. Two police officers
who had visited Mr Vanunu at the church on the night of his release turned
up again yesterday at his quarters.


'Protect Vanunu' Plea to Archbishop

By Ian MacKinnon
JERUSALEM, April 26 - The Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu
yesterday abandoned plans to worship at the Anglican cathedral where he has
taken refuge, for fear that an assassin would infiltrate the congregation.
Mr Vanunu's brother, Meir, appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury to press
Israel to allow his brother to leave the country.
The Israeli Government says that Mr Vanunu may not leave for at least a year
because it says he could reveal more secrets and endanger national security.
But the Government has also declined to offer Mr Vanunu any protection,
despite threats against him.
Right-wing thugs from the outlawed Kahane movement clashed with Mr Vanunu's
supporters and threw stones at his car as he completed 18 years in jail last
week. One extremist, Itamar Bengevir, flung himself at the car and turned up
outside the Jerusalem cathedral's residential quarters the next day,
pledging to stalk the "traitor". "We will pursue Vanunu wherever he goes,"
Mr Bengevir told The Times last night. "He's hiding in church. Why's that?
Because he's afraid of us. Wherever he goes we'll be there. He'll never be
able to walk free until the last day of his life. My suggestion to him is to
go back to prison. He'll never lead a normal life."
An Israeli human rights group demanded that the justice department should
investigate the editor of the mass-circulation Maariv on "suspicion of
incitement to murder". A reader poll asked what should happen to Mr Vanunu
with one option: "Kill him".
Mr Vanunu, who was jailed for leaking nuclear secrets to The Sunday Times,
yesterday remained hidden inside the cloistered gardens of St George's, with
only two church wardens as security.
Mr Vanunu was offered sanctuary by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, the
Right Rev Riah Abu al-Assal, after his planned temporary address in Jaffa
was leaked by the security establishment. Within hours, Mr Vanunu fulfilled
a long-held desire by taking Holy Communion.
However, his brothers Meir and Asher recognize that the lodgings at the
cathedral are only a temporary solution. Mr Vanunu is expected to leave the
compound today where he had been staying in the quarters of the bishop, who
returns to the country today.
Hopes that the Government would relent and allow him quietly to leave the
country to avoid further embarrassment appeared groundless.
A spokesman in Ariel Sharon's office said that Mr Vanunu's release
conditions were set because he was a security risk, adding: "The less we
talk about him the quicker he will fade into oblivion."