Mordechai Vanunu

Mordechai Vanunu (born October 13, 1954) is a former Israeli nuclear technician who publicly exposed Israel's possession of nuclear weapons. When Israel learned of this, he was kidnapped by Mossad (although upon release Vanunu claimed it was the CIA), tried in secret, and sentenced to eighteen years detention. He was released from prison on April 21, 2004, and is subject to a broad array of speech and travel restrictions. Vanunu was seen by many human rights groups as a prisoner of conscience, and they often compare him to the German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004.

Table of contents

1 History 1.1 Background 1.2 Abduction 1.3 Prison 1.4 Release 2 Release restrictions 3 Books about the case 4 External links 4.5 Supporters' websites 4.6 Anti-Vanunu sites

History

Background

Vanunu was born in Marrakech, Morocco to a Jewish family and emigrated with his family to Israel in 1963. After completing his military service in the Israeli Defense Forces he became a student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Between 1976 and 1985, Vanunu was employed as a nuclear technican at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, an Israeli facility which, according to the majority of defence experts, is used for manufacturing nuclear weapons; it is located in the Negev desert south of Dimona. There he became increasingly troubled about the Israeli nuclear program on which he worked. In 1985, he was laid off from Dimona and left Israel. He arrived at Nepal, and considered a conversion to Buddhism. In 1986 he travelled to Sydney, Australia, where he converted to Christianity. While still in Sydney, he met with Peter Hounam, a journalist from the Sunday Times.

Abduction

In early September 1986, he flew to London with Hounam, and revealed to the Sunday Times his knowledge of the Israeli nuclear program, including photographs he had secretly taken at the Dimona site. On September 30, 1986, an American female Mossad agent Cheryl Bentov operating under the name of "Cindy" and masquerading as an American tourist, persuaded Vanunu to fly to Rome with her on a holiday. Once in Rome, Mossad agents kidnapped and drugged him, and returned him to Israel on a freighter. That marked the beginning of what was to be more than a decade of solitary confinement in Israeli prisons. Shortly after his kidnapping, on October 5, the Times published the information he had revealed, and estimated that Israel had produced more than 100 nuclear warheads. Vanunu was then put on trial in Israel on charges of treason and espionage. The trial was held in secret, at the District Court in Jerusalem, before Chief Justice Eliahu Noam and judges Zvi Tal and Shalom Brener, and he was not permitted contact with the media -- however, he cleverly managed to reveal to them the date and location of his kidnapping, by means of writing it on the palm of his hand which he held against the window of a van while being transported so that awaiting journalists could get the information. This act singlehandedly changed Israel's standard procedures for transporting prisoners, to prevent it from happening again.

Prison

On February 27, 1988, the Israeli court sentenced him to 18 years imprisonment from the date of his capture. The Israeli government kept him in near total isolation for more than 11 years, allegedly afraid that he might reveal more Israeli nuclear secrets. However, many critics argue that Vanunu does not have any information that would pose a real security threat to Israel, and that the Israeli government's real motivation is a desire to avoid political embarrassment for itself and allies such as the United States. Dr. Ray Kidder, a senior American nuclear scientist, has said:\n:"On the basis of this research and my own professional experience, I am ready to challenge any official assertion that Mr. Vanunu possesses any technical nuclear information not already made public." [1] His last appeal against his conviction, to the Israeli Supreme Court in 1990, failed. The Israeli government refused to release the transcript of the court case until, after the threat of legal action, it finally agreed to let censored extracts be published in Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper, in late 1999. The European Parliament has condemned Israel's treatment of Vanunu, and referred to his kidnapping by Mossad agents as a gross violation of Italian sovereignty and international law. Vanunu was given an honorary doctorate (dr. h.c.) at the University of Tromsø in 2001. Vanunu and the story of Israel's Nuclear secrets were the subjects of a BBC Correspondent television programme, Israel's Secret Weapon. The programme was broadcast on BBC2 in the UK on March 17 2003 and Vanunu remains bitter about the whole incident, considering that it cost him 18 years of his life to expose Israel's nuclear secrets. While in prison, he took part in small acts of rebellion, such as refusing to talk with the guards, reading only English-language newspapers, and watching only BBC TV. He even refused to eat food when it was served to him so as to maintain a small portion of his life not under Israeli control. "He is the most stubborn, principled, and tough person I have ever met," said his lawyer, Avigdor Feldman. On February 5, 2004, former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit told Reuters that the option of killing Vanunu was considered in 1986 but "Jews don't do that to other Jews". [1]

Release

Upon his release, Vanunu claimed he had no further secrets to reveal, and indicated a desire to completely dissociate himself from Israel: He refused to speak in Hebrew, and expressed a desire to move to the United States as soon as the Israeli government would permit him to do so.

Release restrictions

A number of restrictions have been placed upon Vanunu by Israeli authorities, who stated their reason was fear of him spreading further state secrets.

• Vanunu will have to register to live in an Israeli city of his choice.\n*He will have to give notice to the authorities if he wishes to travel to another city.\n*He will not be allowed to leave Israel for 6 months. This restriction will be reviewed at the end of 6 months and could be renewed. \n*He will not be allowed to contact foreigners either by phone or in person.\n*He will not be allowed to enter any embassy, visit any port of entry, or come within 500 meters of any international border crossing.

Vanunu says that his knowledge is now all outdated, and that he has nothing more he could possibly tell that is not already widely known. On April 22, 2004, Vanunu asked the Norwegian government for a Norwegian passport and asylum in Norway for "humanitarian reasons", according to Norwegian news agencies.

Books about the case

• Cohen, Yoel. The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Dimona & the Bomb. ISBN 084191432X\n* Gaffney, Mark. Dimona: The Third Temple? The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation. ISBN 0915597772\n* Hounam, Peter. The Woman from Mossad: The Torment of Mordechai Vanunu. ISBN 1583940057

External links

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Source documents

\n*Sunday Times articles from 1986\n*Vanunu receives honorary doctorate\n*Israeli Court attempts to impose restrictions on Vanunu's free speech

Supporters' websites

• http://www.vanunu.org\n* HREF="http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/1991/jf91/jf91farinella.html" class="external">Justice for Vanunu\n*The US Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu\n*Letters from Solitary - book of letters from Mordechai Vanunu to Rev. David B. Smith of Sydney, Australia, through whom Vanunu converted to Christianity. PDF copy: Light version, the full version, with reproductions of each letter, is available from Father David's web site.\n*Mordechai Vanunu tells the story of his life\n*BBC Correspondent - Israel's Secret Weapon, broadcast on March 17, 2003, gave an update of Vanunu's plight. There is also a transcript available.\n*Our Son, The Rebel interview with his adoptive parents.\n*Who's afraid of Mordechai Vanunu?\n*Excerpts from Vanunu's statement upon release from prison\n* The 1987 Right Livelihood Award for Mordechai Vanunu

Anti-Vanunu sites

\n*Ari Ben-Menashe on the Capture of Mordechai Vanunu\n*A Mossad perspective on the capture of Mordechai Vanunu\n*Memorandum Regarding Mordechai Vanunu on the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website\nCategory:Wikipedia Featured Articles\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n