YOKO ONO GIVES PEACE PRIZE TO VANUNU

MORDECHAI VANUNU, WHO WAS JAILED FOR PUBLISHING ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR SECRETS, HAS VIOLATED HIS PROBATION BY CONTINUING TO TRY TO SHARE ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR SECRETS, HAS CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY, HAS QUESTIONED ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO EXIST, AND HAS SOUGHT CITIZENSHIP IN THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IS BEING HONORED BY YOKO ONO. ISN'T IT BAD ENOUGH THAT SHE BROKE UP THE BEATLES AND TURNED JOHN LENNON INTO A ZOMBIE?

Yoko Ono gives peace prize to Mordechai Vanunu
LONDON - Veteran peacenik, artist and musician Yoko Ono has given Mordechai Vanunu a peace prize founded in her late husband's memory, an award she hopes will keep the Israeli nuclear whistleblower safe.

Vanunu was barred by Israel's highest court in July from leaving the country, with judges ruling he remained a threat to national security despite serving 18 years in jail for leaking atomic secrets to a British newspaper. Vanunu was abducted by Israeli agents and convicted of treason in 1986 after discussing his work as a nuclear technician with the Sunday Times. ....

"It's possible that somebody might attempt to murder him, that's the main concern," Ono told Reuters in an interview to announce the award. Supporters fear for Vanunu's safety in Israel, where most people despise him as a traitor and see the country's presumed nuclear capability as an insurance policy against numerically superior Middle East foes and a repeat of the Nazi Holocaust.

In an interview conducted by an Israeli intermediary and broadcast by the BBC in early June, Vanunu said he spoke out because he wanted to save Israel from a "new Holocaust." But he has also questioned Israel's right to exist. Ono said she hoped Vanunu could collect the award in person at a New York ceremony next month, to be held in the week her late husband, the murdered Beatle John Lennon, would have turned 64." Hopefully he can come and receive the award himself. He did complete his sentence, it's not as though he's a criminal," Ono said of Vanunu. Even if he can't, the Tokyo-born artist stressed the symbolic importance of recognizing his plight."It's possible that he can't come - the point is that it's another statement, a statement that the whole world can share and think about," she said.