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MORDECHAI VANUNU, the Israeli nuclear whistleblower who spent more than 18 years in prison, is once again facing the prospect of incarceration. On March 17, he was hauled away from his sanctuary at the St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem and charged with violating the terms of his release from a high-security prison. Vanunu, after his release a year ago, was given only partial freedom of movement and speech. The heroic dissenter, who has achieved international cult status for exposing Israel's clandestine nuclear programme in 1986, wanted to leave the Zionist state on his release from prison. He had converted to Christianity while in jail and expressed the desire to settle in the United States, where his adoptive parents reside.
The state of Israel, however, has been unrelenting. The authorities imposed severe restrictions on Vanunu, which included a blanket ban on interacting with the foreign media. He was not allowed to leave the country and was prohibited from going to the occupied West Bank. Vanunu's attempt to go Bethlehem to attend Christmas eve mass last year at the historic church there was viewed as a serious violation. The government insists that Vanunu may spill more of the country's nuclear secrets if he is allowed to leave the country, despite his assertion that he had revealed all the secrets he knew about the nuclear plant at Dimona 20 years ago. During the long years Vanunu spent in solitary confinement, Israel built up a huge nuclear arsenal.
Vanunu has not been afraid to talk to representatives of the foreign media who met him in his spartan one-room lodging in Jerusalem. He has also used the Internet to keep in touch with his supporters all over the world. Israel, which claims to be a democratic outpost in West Asia, does not allow its citizens to probe into its nuclear secrets. The harsh punishment meted out to Vanunu is an illustration of the lengths to which the Zionist state will go to maintain the facade of "nuclear ambiguity". It is feared that Vanunu may again be sent back to prison for his refusal to lie low and stop talking about Israel's nuclear programme, which he and many others feel is one of the main causes for the rising tensions in the region. The U.S. is focussing on Iran's nuclear ambitions while allowing Israel to stockpile nuclear weapons and missiles.
Vanunu will be appearing before a court on April 6. He was officially given notice of this on March 28. He is charged with violating the restrictions imposed on him by granting interviews to foreign media and "attempting to leave the country". The second charge relates to his attempt to go to Bethlehem, which was under Israeli occupation at the time. The International Federation of Journalists, in a statement issued on March 23, said: "Israel is creating a new crime - of talking to journalists. It is a shocking betrayal of democratic principles in what is a vindictive campaign of bullying and intimidation against a man who has served his time."
Daniel Ellsberg, the activist who played a big role in precipitating the downfall of former U.S. President Richard Nixon with the release of the "Pentagon Papers", had met Vanunu in Jerusalem. He was due to testify against the restrictions placed on Vanunu before a Knesset Committee on March 16. The hearing was cancelled and instead new charges were levelled against Vanunu. This is what Ellsberg had to say on the latest moves by Israel against Vanunu: "The fact that Israel has a large and growing nuclear arsenal - larger than Britain's - has been recognised by the rest of the world ever since Mordechai Vanunu revealed it conclusively 19 years ago. For demolishing his country's policy of concealment, denial and `ambiguity' of its status as a nuclear weapons state, Vanunu served 18 years in prison, including an unprecedented period of eleven-and-a-half years of solitary confinement in a six-by-nine-feet cell."
According to Yael Lotan, a close associate of Vanunu, the real reason why Israel is acting against Vanunu at this juncture is that the government either has to renew the restrictions on Vanunu or has to let him go completely free by April under the terms of his release. It has chosen to charge him with violating his release orders. As the Israeli commentator Yossi Melman wrote in Ha'aretz, some hardliners in the top echelons of the Israeli security set-up want Vanunu to remain in Israel forever as a "prisoner of Zion". Indications are that the government is intent on starting a new judicial process that would either keep Vanunu in legal limbo for years to come or put him back in jail.
Vanunu was recently elected by the students of Glasgow University as their "Provost". According to Lotan, he was keen to go to Scotland and take up the job. In the former Soviet Union, individuals working at "sensitive" workplaces wishing to emigrate had to go through a "cooling off" period ranging from three to six years to ensure that they did not reveal fresh information. "Vanunu was last in Dimona 19 years ago - how much more cooling off time does he need to serve," asked Lotan.
A statement issued by Vanunu on March 16, which was supposed to have been read out to the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Judiciary Committee, said: "Eighteen years ago I believed, as I still believe today, that the people of Israel, as well as the global community itself, have the right to know about the existence of nuclear weapons. This is the only way they can insist upon the appropriate development of the peace process in the Middle East. If there was ever an issue requiring openness and democratic debate, this is it".
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