WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon
"If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
DO SOMETHING!
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
May 13, 2010: Email's received and sent: UPDATE: May 20, 2010 FAX to President Obama LEADS
May 20, 2010
Dear President
Obama,
In support of the
New START Treaty I beseech you to also be an honest broker regarding Israel’s
WMD.
Mordechai
"Vanunu told the world that Israel had developed between one hundred and
two hundred atomic bombs [in 1986!] and had gone on to develop neutron bombs
and thermonuclear weapons. Enough to destroy the entire Middle East and nobody
has done anything about it since.”-Peter Hounam, 2003 for the BBC.
In 2005, Vanunu told me:
"President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons.
Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection.When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel
that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would
visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and
stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the
wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them. Nixon stopped the inspections
and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production.
In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough
plutonium for ten bombs a year."
On May 11, 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled
that Mordechai Vanunu, will “serve a three-month jail sentence handed to him by
Jerusalem District Court and not community service.”
Vanunu
is scheduled to return to jail on May 23, 2010, because the ‘justices’ refused
his offer to do community service in occupied east Jerusalem, as they do not
view that side of town to be a part of their community.
On
May 12, 2010, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL urged the Israeli government not to re-imprison Mordechai
Vanunu. “If Mordechai Vanunu is
imprisoned again, Amnesty International will declare him to be a prisoner of
conscience and call for his immediate and unconditional release,” said
Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and
North Africa.
Luther continued, “The ongoing restrictions placed on Mordechai Vanunu have
meant that he has been unable to move to the USA to live with his adopted
family, placing a huge strain on his mental and physical health. They are not
parole restrictions since he served his full 18-year term. They arbitrarily
limit his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association are
therefore in breach of international law.”
On April 30, 2007, the Jerusalem
Magistrate's Court, convicted Vanunu on 14 [out of 21] counts of violating a
court order prohibiting him from speaking to foreign journalists in 2004.Vanunu was
also convicted for traveling the four miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem when he
hoped to attend Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity, his first
Christmas after being released from 18 years in jail [most of it in solitary]
on April 21, 2004.
On July 2, 2007, Israel sentenced Vanunu to six more months in jail for
speaking to foreign media in 2004.
On September 23, 2008, the Jerusalem District Court
reduced Mordechai Vanunu’s six month jail sentence for speaking with foreign
media in 2004, to three months, "In
light of (Vanunu’s) ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions
put the country’s security in jeopardy."
On December 21, 2009, Uzi Eilam, a former head of Israel's Atomic
Energy Commission told PRESS TV that Vanunu, "served the regime because
his revelations helped Tel Aviv intimidate others...I've always believed he
should be let go. I don't think he has significant knowledge to reveal (about
Dimona) now."
On May 10, 2010, Uzi Even, an Israeli scientist,
Tel Aviv University chemistry professor, former worker at Israel's Dimona
reactor and a former member of Israeli parliament spoke on Israeli army radio: "The policy of nuclear ambiguity, by
which we fool only ourselves and nobody else, is not good for us any more. It
was good, effective and successful for close to 40 years, but over 40 years
many things changed and now I am telling you clearly, this policy is no longer
in our interest."
The restrictions that have held Vanunu captive come from the Emergency Defense
Regulations, which were implemented by Britain against Palestinians and Jews
after World War II.
Attorney Yaccov Shapiro, who later became Israel's Minister Of Justice,
described the Emergency Defense Regulations as
"unparalleled in any civilized country: there were no such laws in
Nazi Germany."
Israel kidnapped Vanunu in 1986, but Article 9 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights states: "No
one shall he subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention", including
abduction of a person by agents of one state to another state.
Vanunu was charged with and convicted of treason and espionage.
Section 99 of the Israeli Penal Code, treason is defined as
"an act calculated to assist (an enemy) in time of
war...delivering information with the intention that it fall into the hands of
the enemy."
Section 113 defines aggravated espionage as
"deliver(ing) any secret information without being authorized to
do so and with intent to impair the security of the state" and a
sub-clause provides for a penalty of seven years for the unauthorized
collection, preparation, recording or holding of secret information; if this is
done with intent to impair the security of the state and then, the penalty is
increased to 15 years.
Vanunu served 18 years in jail and has been subjected to 24/7 surveillance ever
since 21 April 2004.
During my interviews with Vanunu, he informed me that,
"All the secrets I had were published in 1989 in an important
book, by Frank Barnaby, The Invisible
Bomb: Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East."
Frank
Barnaby, the Nuclear Physicist, who was hired by the London Sunday Times
to interrogate Vanunu, testified at his closed door trial, "I very vigorously cross-examined Vanunu, relentlessly
asking the same questions in a number of different ways and at different
times...I found Vanunu very straightforward about his motives for violating
Israel's secrecy laws he explained to me that he believed that both the Israeli
and the world public had the right to know about the information he passed on.
He seemed to me to be acting ideologically."
But, Vanunu was rendered defenseless during that closed door trial when the
court ruled that his motivations were not ideological and they refused to allow
Vanunu's own statements regarding his intentions to even be considered in his
defense.
On November 24th, 2006 Vanunu wrote:
"My lawyer succeeded to reveal a few
very important facts: This General of the Army also was not allowed to see all
the secrets that he is required to protect by these restrictions that they
claim I know them. So, he gave orders of restrictions without knowing what he
is protecting or that he is also following orders blindly, and Mossad Sheen Bet
using its authority for just punishing me. He testified that it is not a crime for me to talk with foreigners in
general anywhere.He testified that
I can speak freely to any Israeli citizens about anything; it is not his
concern what I am saying to them. These Israelis can give this information to
any foreigners. It was difficult for the Judge to understand why this dichotomy
exits between foreigners and Israelis. It means that it is not about
secrecy but about something else."
Israel’s statehood was contingent upon upholding the
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
Article
19 affirms: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.
Article
13 guarantees: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and
residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Most sincerely hoping you will do something to FREE VANUNU NOW!
"HOPE has two children. The first is
ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about
it."-St. Augustine
Email received:
Letter to the Ambassador of Israel in Paris
Fredom for Mordechai Vanunu and Salah Hamouri Publication date: 20 May 2010
H.E.
Daniel Shek - Ambassador of Israel
3
Rue Rabelais
75008
Paris
Fax
: 01 40 76 55 55 -
Saintes,
19 May 2010
Subject:
Freedom for Mr Mordechai Vanunu and Mr Salah Hamouri
A
letter to President Sarkozy
Your
Excellency,
Although
we received no answers to our past letters on the same subject to your
predecessors - 11 October 2002, 16 September and 14 October 2004, 5 April and
30 May 2006 - and to yourself on 25 April 2008, we wish again to draw your
attention and (through you) your government’s attention to the fate of Mr
Mordechai Vanunu.
In
1986, Mr Vanunu, an Israeli citizen, was abducted in Rome by Mossad and taken
to Israel by force. He was then brought before a non-public tribunal, without
any real opportunity to defend himself, and was condemned to 18 years
imprisonment on a charge of treason, because he had given to the British Sunday
Times the proof that Israel had secretly acquired nuclear weapons.
After
serving his time, including 11 years in solitary confinement, Mr Vanunu was
freed in 2004, yet was still deprived of some of his civil rights and fundamental
rights, including the right to move freely and the right to have contacts with
foreigners. For exercising this latter right, we now hear that he will have to
return to prison on 23 May and spend three months in detention.
This
new imprisonment damages the reputation of Israel, a state that boasts of being
a democracy.
What would you think if an Iranian citizen, today, were to provide
a Western newspaper, at great risk, with evidence that the Islamic Republic of
Iran had acquired nuclear weapons? Would you judge him a traitor to his country
or a whistle-blower serving the good of humankind? As a criminal or as « one of
the Just »? Would you congratulate the Iranian Army if they shut him away of 18
years? And then what if, after he had served his time, the regime then imposed
a new sentence on him by depriving him of his rights, by forbidding him to
leave his country, by throwing him into prison again? Would you view that as a
proof of democratic processes and of the independence of Iran’s judiciary?
Please,
Mr Ambassador, inform your government that the iniquitous treatment given to
Mordechai Vanunu - like the treatment given to Mr Salah Hamouri, the victim of
an equally astounding conviction and an imprisonment which bears some
similarity to that of Gilad Shalit, does no credit to Israel but on the
contrary alienates even more of international opinion, and French opinion in
particular, by discrediting it as a democratic state. Please note also that
international opinion no longer tolerates the arrogance of states that threaten
others with nuclear weapons, be they France, Israel or any other, as can be
seen in the international signatures to the attached letter addressed to
President Sarkozy.
The
only thing Mr Vanunu did wrong was to anticipate this revolt of consciences by
a quarter of a century. Israel rightly honours the "Just" who risked
their life or freedom to oppose a crime against humanity. But it is a crime
against humanity to use weapons of mass destruction against any population; and
failure to denounce such a crime, as Mordechai Vanunu did, when one knows it is
being planned, is complicity in crime. For that he has paid very dearly. And
now enough is enough. Give him his freedom,
If
Israel’s government persists in seeing Mordechai Vanunu as a citizen unworthy
of Israeli nationality, it ought to revoke his nationality and expel him from
the country. Mr Vanunu asks for nothing else.
Israeli
government urged not to jail nuclear whistleblower again
12
May 2010
AI
Index: PRE01/154/2010
Amnesty
International today urged the Israeli government not to imprison nuclear
whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who is facing a return to jail within
days.
The
Israeli Supreme Court ruled on 11 May that Vanunu, who served 18 years
in
prison for revealing information about Israel’s
nuclear programme, must serve a further three months for meeting a
foreign
national, a violation of the restrictions imposed on him by the military
since
his release.
“If
Mordechai Vanunu is imprisoned again, Amnesty International will declare
him to
be a prisoner of conscience and call for his immediate and unconditional
release,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director
for the Middle
East and North Africa.
Vanunu,
56, who is banned from leaving the country, told Amnesty International
on 12
May: “Whether I go to prison or not, it doesn’t matter to me. I feel
like I’m
in prison already, trapped in Israel.”
A
former technician at Israel's
nuclear plant near the southern town of Dimona,
Vanunu revealed details of the country's nuclear arsenal to UK newspaper
The Sunday Times in 1986.
He
was abducted by Mossad agents in Italy
on 30 September
1986 and
secretly taken to Israel
where he was tried and sentenced to a prison term of 18 years, the first
11
years of which he spent in solitary confinement.
When
he was released in April 2004, the Israeli authorities considered
placing him
under administrative detention, but the option was rejected as illegal
by Israel’s
Attorney General.
Instead,
he has been subject to police supervision since his release under the
terms of
a draconian military order which is renewed every six months, most
recently in
April 2010. According to the order, Vanunu is banned from communicating
with
foreigners, including journalists; he cannot leave the country; he is
forbidden
from visiting foreign embassies; and must inform the authorities if he
wishes
to change addresses.
“The
ongoing restrictions placed on Mordechai Vanunu have meant that he has
been
unable to move to the USA to live with his adopted family, placing a
huge strain
on his mental and physical health,” said Philip Luther.
“They.are
not parole restrictions since he served his full 18-year term. They
arbitrarily
limit his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association are
therefore in breach of international law.”
Vanunu
was convicted on 30 April 2007
of contact with a foreign national without authorization and sentenced
to six
months, reduced on appeal to three.
He
was given the option of doing community service in West
Jerusalem instead
of serving
the three months in jail. He
declined, citing fears for his safety as many Israelis consider him a
national
traitor, and instead offered to carry out the service in Palestinian
East Jerusalem,
where he now lives. The court refused and ordered him to be returned to
jail by
23 May.
Speaking
to Amnesty International, Vanunu expressed a sense of hopelessness,
saying
despite international efforts when he was in prison and subsequently to
lift
the restrictions imposed on him by the Israeli authorities “no one has
been
able to help for 24 years”.
Public
Document
For
more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London,
UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email:
International
Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK www.amnesty.org
May 13, 2010
email to: Dear
Amnesty International,
Thank you for your
PRESS RELEASE of
May 12, 2010 regarding Mordechai Vanunu.
I offer you a few more
facts:
The restrictions that have
held Vanunu captive come from the Emergency Defense
Regulations which were implemented by Britain against Palestinians and
Jews after World
War II.
Attorney
Yaccov Shapiro, who later became Israel's Minister
Of
Justice, described the Emergency Defense Regulations as "unparalleled
in any civilized country: there were no such laws in
Nazi Germany." Israel kidnapped Vanunu in 1986, but
Article 9 of the International Covenant on
Civil
and Political Rights states: "No one shall he subjected to arbitrary
arrest or detention", including abduction of a person by agents of one
state to another state.
Vanunu was charged with and convicted of treason
and espionage.
Section 99 of the Israeli Penal Code, treason is
defined as "an act
calculated to assist (an enemy) in time of war...delivering information
with
the intention that it fall into the hands of the enemy."
Section 113 defines aggravated espionage as "deliver(ing) any secret
information without being authorized to do so and with intent to impair
the
security of the state" and a sub-clause provides for a penalty of
seven
years for the unauthorized collection, preparation, recording or holding
of
secret information; if this is done with intent to impair the security
of the
state and then, the penalty is increased to 15 years.
Vanunu
served 18 years in jail and has been subjected to 24/7 surveillance ever
since 21 April 2004.
Frank Barnaby, the
Nuclear Physicist, who was hired by the London Sunday Times to
interrogate Vanunu, testified at his closed door trial,"I very vigorously
cross-examined Vanunu,
relentlessly asking the same questions in a number of different ways and
at
different times...I found Vanunu very
straightforward about his motives for
violating Israel's secrecy laws he explained to me that he believed that
both
the Israeli and the world public had the right to know about the
information he
passed on. He seemed to me to be acting ideologically."
But, Vanunu
was rendered
defenseless during that closed door trial when the court ruled that
his motivations were not ideological and they refused to allow Vanunu's
own
statements regarding his intentions to even be considered in his
defense.
During my interviews with Vanunu, he informed me that,
"All the secrets I had were published
in 1989 in an important book, by Frank Barnaby,
The
Invisible Bomb: Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East."
On November 24th,
2006
Vanunu wrote:
"My lawyer
succeeded to reveal a few very important facts: This
General of the Army also was not allowed to see all the secrets that he
is
required to protect by these restrictions that they claim I know them.
So, he
gave orders of restrictions without knowing what he is protecting or
that he is
also following orders blindly, and Mossad Sheen Bet using its authority
for
just punishing me. He testified that it is not a crime for me to talk
with foreigners in
general anywhere.He testified that I can speak freely to any
Israeli citizens about
anything;
it is not his concern what I am saying to them. These Israelis can give
this
information to any foreigners. It was difficult for the Judge to
understand why
this dichotomy exits between foreigners and Israelis. It means
that
it is not about secrecy but about something
else."
Israel’s statehood was contingent upon upholding the
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
Article 19 affirms: Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any
media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 13
guarantees: Everyone
has the
right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each
state.
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to
return
to his country.
On September 23,
2008, the Jerusalem
District Court reduced Mordechai Vanunu’s six month jail sentence for
speaking
with foreign media in 2004, to three months, "In light of (Vanunu’s)
ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions put the
country’s
security in jeopardy."
In light of the fact that it has
been
20 months since that verdict came down, please continue to pressure
Israel until they are led to to show mercy and do justice: FREE Vanunu.
Most sincerely,
Eileen
Fleming, Founder
of WeAreWideAwake.org
A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American
'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" Producer "30 Minutes with
Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming
The vote to accept Israel into the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and development (OECD) while it continues to
violate Palestinian Human rights and to flout UN resolutions, indicates
that something is very wrong in the values of the world community. But
then politics have never had moral values, and that is why the world is in such
a mess.
While the siege on Gaza has been
allowed to continue for over 3 years simply because Hamas won the elections in
a democratic process, and while further sanctions are being considered against
Iran for its nuclear activities, Israel continues to enjoy a free hand in the
Palestinian Occupied Territories. It also enjoys the
privilege of not signing the non-proliferation agreement nor having its
nuclear facilities inspected. Once again Israel is being rewarded.
Today Israel is celebrating Jerusalem
Day according to the Jewish calendar. It is the day Israel
unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem to West Jerusalem after the June 1967 war
as “The Eternal United Capital of Israel.”. Until 1948 West Jerusalem had
a Jewish minority as it was the residential section of Palestinians
who were evicted from their homes or had to run away out of fear for their
lives after the massacre of Deir Yaseen. As if
dispossessing the Jerusalemites in 1948 was not enough, Israel now continues
to chase them out of their homes and property in East Jerusalem, where
they have taken refuge or were they had always been living . Under
different pretexts, and by unjust laws created by Israel and applied
by its own court system, Palestinians are left helpless and
homeless.
Our gift on this special day came
through the announcement of the establishment of two Israeli settlements within
East Jerusaelm One behind the YMCA and the American Consulate, and the
other in the Old City near Al-Aqsa mosque. A
special report by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) was issued
today as well, indicating that Israel has already confiscated
24,500 dunums of Palestinian land which is the size of one third of East
Jerusalem. (4 dunums = 1 acre) During 2009 alone, Israel has
demolished 80 homes leaving around 300 of their Palestinian inhabitants
homeless. That is aside from the ongoing onslaught on the Sheikh Jarrah
quarter and the Bustan area in Silwan.
Mr. Obama, in the meantime sends us
harsh messages not to flout the indirect talks. It is yet beyond me
why on earth did we Palestinians accept to pursue those
negotiations when every member of the Palestinian Authority and the negotiating
team had so adamantly announced earlier that there will be no
negotiations unless the settlement activity stops. Of course Mr. Obama
himself had to bow to Israel when its prime minister simply ignored the
request, so did the Palestinian Authority think that they would be
up to that challenge? Not Surprisingly, such a serious decision was
not taken by a unanimous PLO vote but by a simple majority.
On the other hand why did we need the
blessing of the Arab countries when they had already offered Israel a
perfect deal in the 2002 summit in Beirut whereby all Arab
countries were willing to recognize Israel and have diplomatic relations with
it provided it ends the occupation. Had Israel been interested in
peace, it would have jumped at this offer. That was a generous offer, and
the American administration and Mr. Obama should have seized that opportunity to
pressure Israel, instead of wasting more time, energy and money on Mr.
Mitchell’s shuttle trips. Whether the talks are direct or indirect, they
will continue to be futile as long as the component of justice is not there and
as long as the right of return is not on the agenda. Over and above, they
will be futile as long as Israel continues to be rewarded morally and
financially for the dispossession of the Palestinians, and its effect on the
whole region.
My May 11, 2010 email sent to:
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
Dear President Obama, former President
Carter, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Ehud Barak, Supreme Court President Dorit
Beinish, Mr. Eli Yisha, Mr. Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Ambassador Aharon Leshno-Yaar
and The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
On September 23, 2008, the Jerusalem
District Court reduced Mordechai Vanunu’s six month jail sentence for speaking
with foreign media in 2004, to three months, "In light of (Vanunu’s)
ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions put the country’s
security in jeopardy."
On May 11, 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that
Vanunu, will “serve a three-month jail sentence handed to him by Jerusalem
District Court and not community service.”
The Court refused Vanunu’s offer to do community service in
occupied east Jerusalem, because they do not view that side of town to be a
part of their community, but that is the only community Vanunu has known since
April 21, 2004 when he was released from 18 years in a windowless tomb sized
cell because he told the truth about Israel's WMD facility.
Israel’s statehood was contingent upon upholding the
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
Article 19 affirms: Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any
media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 13 guarantees: Everyone has the
right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return
to his country.
The only way Vanunu can harm Israel is
with bad PR and this latest injustice against him will only reap more of it.
Until Israel has mercy and does justice
unto Vanunu- which means allow him to leave the state- this citizen journalist
will persist to write about Vanunu until he is allowed the inalienable human
right of freedom to pursue a life and some happiness.
Eileen Fleming,
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish
American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with
Vanunu" http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming
Visitors since 07.22.05
Visitors: 34697148
"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK
Establishment of Israel
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel