On 6 June 2012, the Israel Supreme Court denied Mordechai Vanunu’s petition to renounce his citizenship, saying that the application had not been submitted according to the prescribed procedure. It took one year for the Israeli legal system to inform the applicant and his lawyers that he had not used the "appropriate channels".

Vanunu is the first Israeli citizen to avail himself of the new law called "revocation of Israeli citizenship." This allows the courts to authorizes the rescinding of citizenship to those convicted of "espionage" or "treason."

Working as an engineer at Dimona, Mordechai Vanunu is the man who revealed in 1986 the existence of an Israeli nuclear program. He had at that time embarrassed the Israeli state whose leaders were publicly declaring that they favored a "nuclear free" Middle East . Kidnapped by the Mossad in Europe after speaking with reporters, he was tried behind closed doors and imprisoned for eighteen years.

"I was held incommunicado for eighteen years, eleven and a half of which in solitary confinement. The first year they put cameras in my cell. They left the light on for three years running. Their spies were constantly beating me; they kept me from sleeping. I was subjected to cruel treatment; they tried to break me. My goal was to hold on, to survive. And I succeeded." [1]

In 1999, thirty-six members of the U.S. House of Representatives had signed an appeal for his release stating that it was their duty "to mobilize for men and women like Mordechai Vanunu who dare to articulate a brighter vision for humanity."

Since his "liberation," Vanunu is subject to major restrictions on his freedom of expression and movement. In 2007 he was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and six months suspended sentence for breaking his "pledge to keep silent." He is in fact banned from to leaving the country and talking to "strangers" without the consent of the army. [2]

Deeply shocked by the behavior of the "Jewish" state, Vanunu converted to Christianity and asked to be stripped of Israeli citizenship.

"I sat in jail, I was freed, and after 26 years they still won’t let me go, I want them to revoke my citizenship so that I can begin my life,” he said after the court ruling.

Letter sent by Mordechai Vanunu in early May 2011 to Israeli officials requesting the revocation of his citizenship:

To Mr. Eli Yishai, Minister of the Interior, 2 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Jerusalem
Re: Revocation of Citizenship

I am Mordechai Vanunu, who was kidnapped in Rome on September 30, 1986, by the security services of Israel.

I was tried by the Jerusalem District Court, convicted of espionage, treason and assistance to the enemy and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment, following a newspaper interview in the London Sunday Times where I told of the production of materials for nuclear arms in Israel.

I have enacted the democratic principle of the public’s right to know.

I have spent 18 years at the Ashkelon Prison, mostly under conditions of complete isolation. On April 21, 2004, I was released, under severe restrictions.

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.

Since my release, I lived for six years in East Jerusalem. Since September 2010, I have lived in Tel Aviv. In June 1986, I have converted to Anglican Christianity.

Recently, the Knesset passed a law authorizing the revocation of Israeli citizenship for 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. This wish for revocation of citizenship is neither new nor recent. Now, however, it is supported by the new Citizenship Revocation Law, passed on March 28, 2011.

I am asking and expecting that this law be enforced to the letter, and that my citizenship be revoked here and now, under the spirit of the law. I have no other citizenship, but I can easily get one, even during my enforced sojourn in Israel, and certainly if I leave the country.

After the treatment and "care" which I got from this country and its citizens, I cannot feel myself a wanted citizen here. 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 feel myself still imprisoned, still a prisoner of war and a hostage, held by the state and the government. After 25 years of getting various harsh penalties from the state, I would like to see an end to punishments and the realization of my basic human right to freedom.

I wish to exercise my right to the freedom of conscience and the freedom of choice—by choosing not to be a citizen of Israel.

I have no interest in Israeli citizenship. I do not want to live here. I ask that you revoke my citizenship here and now. I request that you set me free of Israel, since Israel does not want me, nor do I want Israel.

All that I knew I told already in 1986 to the English newspaper. I have no further confidential information. The time has come to let me leave Israel, after 25 years of imprisonment, a full quarter of a century!

Mordechai Vanunu

Copies: The President, Prime Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister and Justice Minister.

[1] "Mordechai Vanunu: ’Iran poses no threat’,” by Silvia Cattori, Voltaire Network, 10 November 2011 (first published in October 2005.

[2] Israël : Mordechaï Vanunu condamné pour avoir pris la parole," by Ossama Lotfy, Réseau Voltaire, 3 July 2007.