Nuke spy Vanunu: Revoke my Israeli citizenship

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu is demanding that a recen law be applied in order torevoke his Israeli citizenship

Vanunu made the demand in a letter he sent to Interior Minister Eli Yishai days before Independence Day.

"I request that you set me free of Israel, since Israel does not want me nor do I want Israel," he wrote. "I have no interest in Israeli citizenship; I don’t want to go on living here."

Vanunu was found guilty of espionage and treason and sentenced to 18 years behind bars. He spent 11 years in solitary confinement. He was allowed to joint he general prison population only in 1999, following a long legal battle and petitions filed with the High Court of Justice indicating his sanity was at risk.

On April 21, 2004 Vanunu completed his 18-years sentence. He was place under various security restrictions prior to his release, and forbidden from leaving Israel, entering Palestinian Authority territories, and talking to the foreign press. He is also required to report all actions to his parole officers.

In 2007, Vanunu was sentenced to six months in prison and a three-year suspended sentence after being convicted on 15 counts of parole violations, including violating military orders prohibiting him from talking to foreign journalists and leaving Israel.

After his initial release from prison, Vanunu lived in east Jerusalem for six years and then moved to Tel Aviv in 2010. During his time behind bars he converted to Christianity.

Copies of Vanunu's letter were also sent to President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman.

"Seven years have passed and the restrictions are renewed again and again, every year, on the basis of the 1945 Defense (Emergency) Regulations. Now these restrictions are about to be renewed for yet another year," he wrote in letter.

'I still feel imprisoned'

Vanunu has been trying to have his citizenship revoked for a while now, but only now is his request backed up by a new law authorizing the revocation of Israeli citizenship of those convicted of espionage and treason.

"For 25 years I am waiting and demanding the restoration of my complete freedom. I am asking the State of Israel to revoke my citizenship," he wrote.

"After the treatment and 'care' that I got from this country and its citizens, I don't feel like I'm wanted here," he wrote. "In the Israeli media and on the Israeli streets I am called 'The Atomic Spy' and 'A traitor', harassed and persecuted as an enemy of the state for 25 years.

"I still feel imprisoned, still a prisoner of war and a hostage, held by the State and the government," the nuke whistleblower added.

Vanunu emphasized that he sent all the information he had the British Times back in 1986. 

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