Vanunu Update
continued...
Autumn 1997
(Reprinted from The Other Israel - Newsletter of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace; P.O.B. 2542 Holon, Israel, 58125; October-November 1997)
The increasing concern about the Iranian nuclear program is bringing home to Israelis that their country will not enjoy forever a regional nuclear monopoly, and that sooner or later Israel - like the U.S. in 1949 - would be facing an enemy armed with the same weapons of total destruction. This makes the idea of creating a nuclear-free Middle East more relevant and gives part of the public more understanding for the nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, now entering a twelfth year in solitary confinement. Expressions of support for Vanunu in the mainstream media are on the increase. ("I chose to make a film about Vanunu because he is a sensitive person, a man of conscience, and one of the few true heroes I know of" - Film-maker Danny Varta, at a TV art program, 14.7)
Also among ordinary people, the image of Vanunu as spy and traitor is fading. This was discovered by sixteen international anti-nuclear activists - some with prison records themselves - who gathered in Israel to mark the eleventh anniversary of the Vanunu kidnapping with a week-long action (Sept. 24-30). Daily they demonstrated outside the Ashkelon Prison and also picketed the Defence Ministry, Prime Minister's Office, President's Residence, and embassies. They were prepared for hostile reactions. There were indeed quite a few of these - but also a whole lot of friendly passers-by, some remarking, "he suffered enough, they should let him out", while a surprising number of others expressed an articulate support of nuclear disarmament.
The Sept. 27 demonstration at the Dimona Nuclear Pile - or rather, some kilometres from it, the nearest the police would allow - drew some thirty Israeli participants, in addition to the internationals, and got into the TV news, which also broadcast an interview with Meir Vanunu, the brother. The improvised meeting held afterwards at a roadside restaurant had the effect of injecting the Israeli Vanunu Committee with new activists - including a group of vigorous teenagers, hitherto mainly involved in struggles for animal rights.
While Vanunu's release still seems a distant goal, Vanunu's dream of a free discussion on the nuclear issue is fast becoming a reality. On July 30, Yediot Aharonot carried the once-unimaginable banner headline "Israel's nuclear base vulnerable and unsafe", quoting the prestigious London-based Jane's Defence Weekly and adding a detailed map of the nuclear site.
This was followed by a precedent-setting verdict in which the Tel Aviv District Court awarded two and a half million Shekels in damages to the family of a Dimona Pile employee who had died of cancer - which, the court ruled, was cause directly by radiation to which he was exposed and against which exposure the Pile Administration had taken "not even the most elementary precautions." The enormous articles published on this issue, once again by Yediot Aharonot, did not mention Vanunu's name. Still, it was difficult not to see in them the beginning of vindication for the imprisoned "nuclear spy." As it happened, the verdict was given exactly on Mordechai Vanunu's birthday, October 13 - a date marked with a new Ashkelon Prison vigil by the new, youthful anti-nuclear activists.
from The Other Israel, July-Aug. 1997
From his isolated cell in Ashkelon Prison, the "Nuclear Prisoner" Mordechai Vanunu continues to haunt the country's decision-makers. Vanunu's incoming and outgoing mail is strictly censored, and his latest appeal against that censorship was rejected by the Supreme Court - in proceedings in which the publication of any information was prohibited by censorship.
However, the parliamentary immunity granted to Knesset Members forbids the censoring of letters sent to them . Vanunu's use of this loophole so alarmed the government as to introduce a bill, immediately dubbed "The Vanunu Law," which would permit the censoring of letters sent to MKs by prisoners who have been declared to be "security risks."
The Security Services seemed particularly alarmed by the letter by the letter which the famous prisoner had sent to Hadash Knesset Member Azmi Bishara. They did get it censored; but as a direct result of the public debate, Vanunu's letter got prominently published in the mass circulation Yediot Aharonot, reaching many Israelis who had never before heard "The Nuclear Spy" speak for himself. The blacked-out strips left by the censor served to arouse curiosity and interest.
From: M. Vanunu - Ashkelon Prison
To: Knesset Member Azmi Bishara
(...) I have no doubt that you, like all the Arab Knesset members, are opposed to the existence of -- single word censored-- nuclear weapons in Israel, and support the way of --two lines censored --. But I don't understand why the Arab Knesset members do not raise this issue in the Knesset, why they refrain from attacking the state of Israel --half line censored -- the truth and open the Dimona Nuclear Pile to international inspection. I think that you, the representatives of the Arab Palestinians in Israel, should attack the establishment on every issue where you have strong moral and international backing. If you attack Israel on the issue of --single word censored --nuclear weapons you will get recognition and love from all over the world, and also from Jewish Israelis. The Jewish Knesset members, even those from Meretz and the left, do not dare to speak out. You might encourage some of them, or otherwise they will have to show openly whether or not they support it. I have broken through this barrier and revealed to the whole world --half a line censored -- and in fact I showed all the dangers involved in producing nuclear weapons --single word censored -- but I was kidnapped and gagged. You in the Knesset are free to speak out (...)
(Yediot Aharonot, June 22, 1997)
In early April, the Israeli journalist Gideon Mahanyami - himself a former revealed in the London Sunday Times the present whereabouts of "Cindy", the Mossad agent who lured Vanunu from England to Italy where he was kidnapped and taken to Israel. Her real name is Cheryl Bentov, and she resides in Orlando, Florida (or did until she was traced). Mahanaymi was sharply attacked by right-wing journalists, such as the notorious Yosef Lapid, who accused him of "treason" and of "disturbing the life of a girl who did her duty to her country." He calmly rebuffed the accusations: "I am a journalist, and this is a big story. After what this woman did, she can't expect journalists to leave her alone." (Yediot Aharonot, April 10, 1997)
On April 21, the poet Aharon Shabtai published in the Ha'aretz literary supplement a poem entitled "Free Mordechai Vanunu". Referring to Israel's National hero, Yosef Trumpeldor, who fell at the outpost of Tel-Chai and whose last words supposedly were: "Never mind, it is good to die for our country," Shabtai wrote:
wearing three pairs of glasses / i push my nose to the monument at tel chai / and read the letters within the letters / it is bad to die for our country / free mordechai vanunu
Playwright Yigal Ezrati has written and directed "Mr. V." a play on the life and imprisonment of Mordechai Vanunu, with the cooperation of Vanunu's brother Meir, as well as conducting a (heavily censored) correspondence with Vanunu himself. The resulting one-actor play was awarded a distinction at the Tel Aviv Teatroetto Festival, with critics applauding Jonathan Cherchi's "virtuosity in acting Vanunu's character, as well as many of the other characters who shed light on a different aspect of the man" (Shosh Weitz, Yediot Aharonot). Shai Bar Ner, of the weekly, Tel Aviv, remarked on the subject: "This is an attempt to look at ourselves as a nation, through the story of a technician who decided that he is not willing to risk a nuclear holocaust."
Mr. V will be presented at the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, between Aug. 10-23 - Pleasance Theatre.
In Yediot Aharonot on July 14, columnist Meir Stiglitz wrote: "Israel is the only one of the Western democracies possessing 'nuclear capability' in which the moral aspect of the nuclear policy is effectively left out of the public discourse. Those who are known as the country's leading intellectuals have chosen to abdicate and leave this issue almost entirely in the hands of the security establishment."
Since the international conference on Vanunu held in Tel Aviv in 1996 activities on behalf of Vanunu in different countries have been on the rise: picketing of Israeli embassies and of visiting Israeli VIPs; letters of protest sent to the Israeli authorities (mostly answered with stiff, form letters - but sometimes with angry and scathing letters from embassy staff); adoption of Vanunu by various peace movements and human rights groups (including ten different Amnesty International groups) and proliferation of support committees devoted to him, which now exist in no less than 18 countries; lobbying of various governments and parliaments to take up the issue with the government of Israel.
Of the last, the most notable achievement was the creation of a "toe-hold on Capitol Hill" as the US Campaign for Vanunu put it - with Senators Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin and Paul Wellstone of Minnesota taking up the issue, and Representative Ron Dellums getting twelve of his colleagues to do the same. (The rather cold reply from Secretary of State Albright declared the Vanunu case to be 'an Israeli domestic legal matter').
In September of this year, which will be the eleventh anniversary of Vanunu's kidnapping and imprisonment, a week-long international vigil is planned, daily moving from one spot to another in Israel: The Dimona Pile, Ashkelon Prison, the Knesset...
Early this year a group of youths in the north of Israel, independent of older anti-nuclear initiatives, formed a group under the name NO MORE HIROSHIMAS, and held a seminar in Haifa in early June. They are collecting signatures for a petition calling upon the government to declare officially whether it possesses nuclear weapons and, last but not least, to open the Dimona Nuclear Pile to inspection by public committees which would publish their reports. On the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August, they intend to demonstrate outside the Dimona Pile and the Knesset. (Their address is: No More Hiroshima, POB 296, Ma'alot 21011, Israel.)
London Sunday Times - July 27 1997
VANUNU FINDS FIRST BACKER IN THE KNESSET
by Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
IT IS the first sign of political support in Israel for Mordechai Vanunu, the technician imprisoned for revealing Israel's secret nuclear weapons programmed. A member of Israel's parliament is to petition the High Court to release him from the solitary confinement in which he has been held for the past 10 years.
Dedi Zucker, a member of the Knesset, said last week that he feared for Vanunu's sanity if he was held in isolation much longer. He also revealed that he had received a letter from Vanunu in which he described for the first time the precise circumstances in which he was abducted by agents of Mossad, the Israeli security force, after revealing the country's nuclear secrets to The Sunday Times.
"I truly believe that the purpose of keeping Vanunu in solitary confinement all this time is to make sure that when he does get out, he will be insane and therefore nobody will pay attention to him," said Zucker, who is a member of the left-wing Meretz party.
"From what I have heard and from my last meeting with Vanunu, there is no doubt that there is a severe deterioration in his mental health. He claims that the BBC is broadcasting disinformation against him, that all his friends are Mossad agents, and that there is a worldwide conspiracy of espionage to drive him crazy."
Psychiatrists said yesterday that Vanunu's delusions are symptomatic of paranoia, common in those deprived of contact with the outside world for significant lengths of time.Zucker will argue in the High Court that there is no point in Vanunu being prevented from having contact with others since he had already told his story. However, this is certain to be unpopular in Israel where Vanunu is considered a traitor who was justly punished.
Vanunu, now 42, had travelled to London to reveal information about Israel's production of nuclear bombs at the secret installation of Dimona, where he had worked as a technician, when he was kidnapped by Mossad agents.
With special dispensation from the government, Zucker was allowed to visit Vanunu twice in the past three years. But since the election last year of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, all further access has been denied. On Zucker's last visit, however, Vanunu did manage to smuggle a letter to the politician, who said it appeared to be one of the last lucid communications from the former nuclear technician. In the letter Vanunu described for the first time and in his own words how he was abducted and pleaded for Zucker's help.
The letter confirms many of the details of a Sunday Times investigation into his disappearance. "On 24-9-86 I met an American girl in Leicester Square in London and later met her several times,"
Vanunu wrote. "On 30-9-86 she persuaded me to go with her to Rome to visit her sister. We left London on British Airways flight 504 and arrived in Rome. "There she was met by an Italian who introduced himself as a friend of her sister's and he took us in his private car to a flat in a suburb outside Rome. As I entered the flat, I was attacked by two men, who then drugged me by means of injections." Vanunu wrote that he regained consciousness in a car and tried to cause an accident, but was then drugged again. "I woke up when they arrived in the dark at the seaside," he claimed. "There they carried me on a stretcher in a commando boat to a yacht. On the yacht I was held in a cabin shackled by handcuffs and a chain to the bed for seven days until we reached the coast of Israel."
Vanunu wrote that in a closed court hearing he had been forbidden to say the word "Italy" or "boat", presumably to hide from the judges the fact that he had been kidnapped. The letter ended on a plaintive note. "It seems to me," Vanunu wrote, "they're seeking all sorts of excuses for silencing me, to silence the whole story."
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