Dear President Peres and Prime Minister Netanyahu,
We are writing to request that you grant the total and unconditional release of Mordechai Vanunu and lift all restrictions placed on his freedom of movement.

Mr. Vanunu has already spent 18 years in prison for alerting the international community and the people of Israel to the Israeli government‚ nuclear weapons capabilities. Since his release in 2006, he has been denied many of his fundamental rights, including freedom of movement, expression and association. In October of this year, the Israeli Supreme Court justified these ongoing restrictions on the basis that his knowledge of nuclear research from over 25 years ago continues to threaten the state of Israel.

Yet Mr. Vanunu is not an enemy of Israel. He is a courageous individual whose dedication to human rights and non-proliferation is internationally recognized. A few weeks ago, Mr. Vanunu was chosen by the International League for Human Rights as the 2010 recipient of the prestigious Carl von Ossietzky Medal. The award is given each year in honour of Carl von Ossietzky a German pacifist who was arrested and confined in a concentration camp for his principled opposition to the Nazi regime.

As we gather in Japan for the Summit of Peace Laureates, we remember the inhumane devastation caused by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We also pay tribute to the commitment of individuals such as Mordechai Vanunu who are devoted to freeing the world from the threat of nuclear weapons so that such devastation will never again occur.As such, we urge you to ensure that the restrictions placed on Mr. Vanunu are lifted immediately so that he is able to leave Israel to receive his award in Berlin on December 12th.

Sincerely,

Betty Williams, Nobel Peace Prize 1979

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize 1979

Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Nobel Peace Prize 1992

Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize 1997

We can work to delegitimize nuclear weapons and war and end resources for them.

We can support the call for the full implementation of the unilateral, bilateral and multilateral

Steps in the nuclear disarmament action plan agreed by NPT State Parties at the 2010 Review

Conference.

We can encourageIsrael to sign the NPT and participate in the UN proposed Middle East Conference for a Nuclear Free Middle East.

We can support Nuclear Whistleblowers and work for their freedomparticularly Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower, who after 25 years is forbidden to speak to foreigners and leave Israel.

We can take hope from the fact that l89 States have signed the NNPT and that a verifiable nuclear weapons convention is technically legally and politically feasible, when underpinned by the Nuremberg Principals, by which the threat and use of nuclear weapons are illegal and criminal.‚“

„ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN ENDING NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND WAR“ (Mairead Maguire)

Presentation at llth Nobel Peace Summit in Hiroshima, Japan November 2010