Mystical Christmas Eves and Why I am 'Flaming' Fleming

Excerpted from BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu 's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker

Mordechai Vanunu photo courtesy: allvoices.com

(CLERMONT, Fla.) - The following is excerpted from BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker. Specifically, it is from Chapter 16 which is titled: Mystical Christmas Eves,

"The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." - John 1:5

On Christmas Eve evening of 2007, I picked up my snail mail and opened up a card from Jerusalem. Vanunu made me laugh out loud, for he addressed it to: "Eileen Flaming" not Fleming, which is my actual name.

I picked my Christmas Eve mail up three years to the very hour to when I had first read an article by Jerry Levin about Vanunu's 2004 Christmas Eve arrest for attempting to travel the less than two-hour walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. Levin had been a CNN Mid East Bureau Chief in the 1980's and a secular Jew when he was kidnapped and held hostage by the Lebanese Hezbollah. Levin escaped his captivity unharmed shortly after a mystical Christmas Eve experience and he then became a committed Christian. Jerry was my guide through Hebron on the first day of summer 2005 and it was on that very evening that I met Vanunu for the first time.

It was from Jerry Levin's Christmas Eve 2004 article about Vanunu's Christmas Eve that I also learned that Vanunu had been released from Ashkelon eight months prior. I hadn't heard a word about it when that happened and learning about that at the same time as another arrest, set my Irish temper off and flaming. I spent hours that evening at my computer emailing letters to the editors and my congressional reps about how unjust of Israel to deny someone the right to worship in the next town. How ignorant I was to think they would care, for I had not yet learned that what Vanunu had been subjected to, is standard operating procedures against Palestinians every day of the year.

In 2004, Vanunu had attempted to celebrate his first Christmas Eve Mass back in the world, in the Little Town of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, which is in Occupied Territory. Instead of mass, Israel arrested him and Vanunu spent Christmas Eve night in prison and Israel claimed Vanunu was "attempting to leave the county" but he has no passport or visa and was only carrying a Santa hat. I tried to comprehend how a democracy could deny anyone from worshiping anywhere and anyhow they desired.

I read Jerry's article just moments after my own mystical Christmas Eve experience. After my husband who played piano and our daughter who sings at a local Methodist church, left for two services that evening, I spent an hour walking in the woods adjacent to our home with our dogs. When I returned to our circular driveway, the very moment I stepped onto the pavement and off the dirt road, a security light that had not lit since the summer before turned on.

"How weird is that!" I thought as that light had been extinguished since 25 September 2004, when Hurricane Jeanne blew through and became the reason why I did not have scheduled surgery the day after. Due to many years of rollerblading and dancing, my left kneecap had wedged itself out of place and I was unable to bear any weight on my left leg. The orthopedist informed me that the only way to fix me, was to cut my knee wide open, remove and reattach my knee cap and put me in a leg cast for six weeks.

I spent three weeks on bed rest and three times a day I massaged my knee with Holy Land olive oil from Taybeh. The night before I was scheduled for surgery, Hurricane Jeanne blew over our sanctuary and downed dozens of trees along our quarter mile driveway and left us without electricity for many days afterward. I canceled my surgery as there was no way to even get to the main road and on the day after that, I asked my orthopedist for a physical therapy prescription. He warned me surgery was my only long-term solution, but gave me the script and I have proved him wrong. The combo of bed rest, olive oil, prayer and a change in my life style, six year later I roller blade two or three times a week, dance a little and do a lot of Pilates, and have not needed any surgery.

In the moment after the security light on my circular drive lit for the first time in three months on Christmas Eve 2004, I felt it a confirmation that the 'lemon aide' out of Hurricane Jeanne had been the healing of my left knee.

And in the moment that security light on my circular drive lit for the first time in three months on Christmas Eve 2004, I lit up like a Christmas tree.

After my mystical walk out of the woods and as my family was away, I logged onto my email and opened one from my friend Faith-the very same Faith who had shared George of Beit Jala's photo with me. [It is his face that adorns the banner of my website.]

Faith had forwarded Jerry Levin's article about Vanunu's Christmas Eve arrest that compelled me to spend the next few hours at my computer emailing the media, in particular Mr. Bill O'Reilly-the champion of the "war on Christmas" the New York Times and dozens of other MSM outlets.

As I reflect back now, I laugh at how deluded and naive I had been back then, to expect the US Media would report on such an event.

In 2004, I was naïve, but I also was and remain livid that the Fourth Estate has ignored that Israel, "blocked clergy from reaching their churches and Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem and elsewhere in the Holy Land.

"The Israeli authorities are arbitrarily denying entry to clergy and volunteers belonging to or working for Christian institutions and service providers. The clergy being harassed and denied entry to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) join tens of thousands of ordinary foreign passport holders of Palestinian and non-Palestinian origin who wish to be with their families, work or study, as well as tourists and pilgrims."

"In addition, there appears to be a new policy by Israel to refuse entry or visa extension for foreign, primarily Western, Christian volunteers working with various Christian organizations here. This is affecting the viability of these organizations and the normal connection with their supporters and fellow Christians in the countries that contribute to the presence of these Christian workers. They represent mainstream Christian and faith-based groups, such as the World Council of Churches and the American Friend's Service Committee that advocate non- violence and brotherhood and are in no way a threat to the security of Israel.

"Israel has continued to pursue both policies and practices that fail to comply with International Humanitarian Law."

During Holy Week, 2010, things got worse.

The week before that, Israel approved more settlements in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and Vanunu continues to wait for the right to leave the state...

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Eileen Fleming is the Producer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org, Eileen is a Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com, Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" and the soon to be released "BEYOND NUCLEAR: Some of my Experiences of Mordechai Vanunu and the Holy Land: 2005-2010" youtube.com/user/eileenfleming. Eileen is a unique leader in her state and she intends to run for a Florida Congressional seat in the future, to help speed the process of change that is so demanded today. Like many who walk in similar steps, Eileen, like other writers at Salem-News.com, is an outspoken advocate for humanity and she has no tolerance for the oppressive forces of the world.

You can send Eileen Fleming an email at this address: ecumei@gmail.com