Mordechai Vanunu

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Mordechai Vanunu in the garden of St. George's Cathedral. This picture was taken two days after his April 21, 2004 release from prison

Mordechai Vanunu (help·info) (Hebrew: מרדכי ואנונו‎; born Marrakech, Morocco, October 13, 1954), also known by his baptismal name John Crossman, is an Israeli former nuclear technician who revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently abducted in Rome by an Israeli Mossad agent and smuggled to Israel, where he was tried in secret and convicted of treason.

Mordechai Vanunu spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 years served in solitary confinement. Vanunu was released from prison in 2004, subject to a broad array of restrictions on his speech and movement. Since then he has been briefly arrested several times for multiple violations of those restrictions, including giving various interviews to foreign journalists and attempting to leave Israel. The court proceedings are ongoing, as well as Vanunu's appeal to the Supreme Court of the restrictions on his speech and movement.

On February 22, 2006 in a Jerusalem court it was revealed that Israel had asked Microsoft to hand over all the details of Vanunu's Hotmail account before a court order had been obtained [1].

Vanunu was seen by some human rights groups as a prisoner of conscience. In its press release of April 19, 2005, Amnesty International said "If Mordechai Vanunu were to be imprisoned for breaching the restrictions imposed on him, Amnesty International would consider him to be a prisoner of conscience."^[1] Vanunu has been characterized by some as a whistleblower ^[2] ^[3]and by others as a traitor.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] He has been highly critical of Israel's political actions, refuses to speak Hebrew, and rejects the need for a Jewish state to exist.^[8]

1 Early life
2 Negev Nuclear Research Center
3 Disclosure, abduction, and publication
4 Imprisonment
5 Release
6 Latest arrests
- 6.1 2004
- 6.2 2005
7 Support, awards, and honors
8 See also
9 Bibliography
10 References
11 External links

[edit] Early life

Vanunu was born in Marrakech, Morocco to a Jewish family; his father was a rabbi. In 1963, at the age of nine, he emigrated under the Law of Return with his parents and 11 brothers and sisters to Israel. Vanunu completed his three years of military service in the sapper unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, with the rank of sergeant. After completing his service, Vanunu became a philosophy student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he became critical of many policies of the Israeli government, forming a group called "Campus" with four other Jewish students and five Arab students. Vanunu was also affiliated with a group called "Movement for the Advancement of Peace." He never graduated from the university.

[edit] Negev Nuclear Research Center

Vanunu's photograph of a Negev Nuclear Research Center glove box containing nuclear materials in a model bomb assembly, one of about 60 photographs he later gave to the British press.

Between 1976 and 1985, Vanunu was employed as a nuclear plant technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, an Israeli facility which, according to the majority of defense experts, is used for manufacturing nuclear weapons and nuclear research;^[9] it is located in the Negev desert south of Dimona. Most worldwide intelligence agencies estimate that Israel developed nuclear weapons as early as the 1960s, but the country has purposely maintained a "policy of deliberate ambiguity", neither acknowledging nor denying that it possesses the weapons. It was during his employment there that one of the left-wing groups in which Vanunu held membership, protested against Israel's 1981 destruction of Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor, which was believed to be part of the Iraqi nuclear weapons development program. The Jerusalem Post stated that Vanunu took active part in these protests,^[10] arguing that this showed that he was motivated by antipathy to Israel in his later actions. Vanunu has not responded to these claims.

It is believed that at Dimona, Vanunu became increasingly troubled about the widely believed Israeli nuclear weapons program on which he worked. When he was laid off from Dimona in 1985, Vanunu left Israel. He arrived at Nepal and considered a conversion to Buddhism, later traveling to Burma and Thailand. In 1986, he traveled to Sydney, Australia. While there, Vanunu lived in a hostel in Kings Cross and worked in odd jobs, first as a hotel dishwasher and later as a taxi driver.

Vanunu began to attend the local church, St. John's. There he met the Reverend John McKnight, who worked with the homeless and drug addicts. Vanunu converted to Christianity and was baptized as John Crossman into the Anglican Church of Australia, making him further estranged from his family. While in Sydney, he met Peter Hounam, a journalist from The Sunday Times in London.

[edit] Disclosure, abduction, and publication

On October 5, 1986, the British newspaper The Sunday Times ran the story on its front page under the headline: "Revealed: the secrets of Israel's nuclear arsenal."

In early September 1986, Vanunu flew to London with Hounam, and in violation of his non-disclosure agreement, revealed to The Sunday Times his knowledge of the Israeli nuclear program, including photographs he had secretly taken at the Dimona site. Anxious to avoid being duped by another Hitler Diaries-sized hoax, The Sunday Times spent extensive time verifying Vanunu’s story with leading nuclear weapon experts, including former U.S. nuclear weapons designer Theodore Taylor, who concluded that Israel had almost certainly begun manufacturing thermonuclear weapons. Vanunu gave detailed descriptions of lithium-6 separation and lithium hydride production required for the Teller-Ulam nuclear weapon design. Vanunu described the plutonium processing used, giving a production rate of about 30 kg per year, and stated that Israel used about 4 kg per weapon.^[11]^[12]

Vanunu states in his letters that he intended to share the money received from the newspaper for the information with the Anglican Church of Australia. Apparently frustrated by the delay while Hounam was completing his research, Vanunu approached a rival newspaper, the tabloid Sunday Mirror, whose owner was Robert Maxwell. In 1991, a self-described former Mossad officer called Ari Ben-Menashe alleged that Maxwell had tipped off the Mossad, possibly through British secret services, about Vanunu. It is also possible that they were alerted by enquiries made to the Israeli Embassy in London by Sunday Mirror journalists.

The Israeli government decided to detain Vanunu, but determined that to avoid harming its good relationship with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher diplomatic ties Vanunu should be persuaded to leave UK territory under his own volition. Knowing Vanunu's interest in women, on September 30, an Israeli Mossad agent, Cheryl Bentov, operating under the name of "Cindy" and masquerading as an American tourist, persuaded him to fly to Rome with her on a holiday. Once in Rome, Mossad agents drugged him and smuggled him to Israel on a freighter, beginning what was to be more than a decade of solitary confinement in Israeli prisons.

On October 5, the Sunday Times published the information he had revealed, and estimated that Israel had produced more than 100 nuclear warheads.

[edit] Imprisonment

Vanunu revealed details of his detention by writing on his hand: "Vanunu M was hijacked in Rome. ITL. 30.9.86, 21:00. Came to Rome by fly BA504."

Vanunu was put on trial in Israel on charges of treason and espionage. The trial, held in camera (in secret), took place at the District Court in Jerusalem before Chief Justice Eliahu Noam and judges Zvi Tal and Shalom Brener. He was not permitted contact with the media but he wrote the details of his capture (or "hijacking" as he put it) on the palm of his hand, and while being transported he held his hand against the van's window so that waiting journalists could get the information (photo).

On February 27, 1988, the court sentenced him to 18 years' imprisonment from the date of his capture. The Israeli government refused to release the transcript of the court case until, after the threat of legal action, it agreed to let censored extracts be published in Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper, in late 1999.

The death penalty in Israel is restricted to special circumstances. In 2004, former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit told Reuters that the option of extrajudicial execution was considered in 1986, but rejected because "Jews don't do that to other Jews".^[13]

The Israeli government kept him in near total isolation for more than 11 years, allegedly out of concern that he might reveal more Israeli nuclear secrets and because he was still bound by the contract that swore him to secrecy on the subject. While in prison, he refused psychiatric treatment. Many critics argue that Vanunu had no additional 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. Ray Kidder, then a senior American nuclear scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has said:

“

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.^[14]

”

Others also questioned that a technician without a college degree would have any new valuable technical information.

His last appeal against his conviction, to the Supreme Court of Israel in 1990, failed.

While in prison, Vanunu says, 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 television. 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.

[edit] Release

In 2004, shortly before his scheduled release, Vanunu remained defiant under interrogation by the security service Shin Bet. In recordings of the interview made public after his release, he is heard saying "I am neither a traitor nor a spy, I only wanted the world to know what was happening." He also said, "We don't need a Jewish state. There needs to be a Palestinian state. Jews can, and have lived anywhere, so a Jewish State is not necessary."^[8]

Vanunu was released from prison on April 21, 2004. He indicated a desire to completely dissociate himself from Israel, initially refusing to speak in Hebrew, and planning to move to Europe or the US^[15] as soon as the Israeli government would permit him to do so. He denounced most of his family, but maintains a relationship with at least one of his brothers.^{[citation needed]}

A number of restrictions were placed upon Vanunu by Israeli authorities, who stated their reason was fear of him spreading further state secrets and that he is still bound by his non-disclosure agreement. These stipulate that he:

has to register to live in an Israeli city of his choice.
has to give notice to the authorities if he wishes to travel to another city.
is not allowed to leave Israel. This restriction has since been extended to April 2006,^[16] and yet again to April 2007 due to his violations of court rulings. While a court found in 2005 that he should be free to go to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the 2006 restrictions explicitly forbade him to visit either, reversing the court's initial decision.
is not allowed to contact foreigners either by phone or in person or by e-mail.
is not allowed to enter or approach any embassy, visit any port of entry, or come within 500 metres of any international border crossing.

Vanunu says that his knowledge is now all outdated, and that he has nothing more he could possibly reveal that is not already widely known. Despite the stated restrictions, since his release Vanunu has freely given interviews to the foreign press, including a live phone interview to BBC Radio Scotland.

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. He also sent applications to other countries, and stated that he would accept asylum in any country because he fears for his life. Former conservative Norwegian Prime Minister Kåre Willoch has asked the conservative government to give Vanunu asylum, and the University of Tromsø has offered him a job. This application, as well as an application for asylum in Sweden has been rejected, since neither country accepts absentee asylum applications. He also unsuccessfully requested asylum in Ireland, which would require him to first be allowed to leave Israel. It has been reported that he also approached Russia and China about political asylum, but it is not known whether he has submitted official asylum applications to these countries.^{[citation needed]}

Since his release, Vanunu has appeared in Israeli courts on numerous occasions on charges of having broken the sanction. He was arrested and detained for attempting to go to Bethlehem, on at least one occasion his room in St. George's Cathedral was raided by policemen and his belongings were confiscated. In 2006, Microsoft was accused^[17] of helping Israeli police to obtain documents incriminating Vanunu.

International calls for his freedom of movement and freedom of speech made by organizations supporting Vanunu have been either ignored or rejected by Israel.

[edit] Latest arrests

[edit] 2004

On November 11, 2004, Vanunu was arrested by the International Investigations Unit of the Israeli police at around 9am while eating breakfast. The arrest stemmed from an ongoing probe examining suspicions of leaking national secrets and violating legal rulings since his release from prison. Police officers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying machine guns entered into the walled compound of St. George's Anglican Church in East Jerusalem, where Vanunu had been renting a room since his release. Police removed papers and a computer from his room. After a few hours' detention, Vanunu was put under house arrest, which was to last seven days.^[18]
On December 24, 2004, in a vehicle marked as belonging to foreign press, Vanunu was apprehended by Israeli Police while he was attempting enter the West Bank in violation of his release restrictions (see above), allegedly to attend mass at the Church of the Nativity. After posting bail of 50,000 NIS, he was released into five-day house arrest.^[19]

[edit] 2005

On January 26, 2005, BBC reported that its Jerusalem deputy bureau chief, Simon Wilson, was banned from Israel after BBC refused to submit interview material made with Vanunu to Israeli censors.^[20] Vanunu gave the interview in violation of court orders. Wilson was allowed to return to Israel on March 12 after signing an apology letter acknowledging that he defied the law.^[21]

On March 17, 2005 Vanunu was charged with 21 counts of "contravening a lawful direction" (maximum penalty two years' imprisonment per count) and one count of "attempting to contravene a lawful direction."

On November 18, 2005 Vanunu was arrested at the al-Ram checkpoint north of Jerusalem as he was returning by bus from the West Bank. The Israeli authorities say Vanunu's travel ban includes visits to the Palestinian territories.^[22]

[edit] Support, awards, and honors

The European Parliament has condemned Israel's treatment of Vanunu, and referred to his detention by Mossad agents as a gross violation of Italian sovereignty and international law. Amnesty International described his treatment as constituting "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment [...] such as is prohibited by international law."

Vanunu received the Right Livelihood Award in 1987, and was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Tromsø in 2001. He was nominated by Joseph Rotblat for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004. In 2005 he received the Peace Prize of the Norwegian People (Folkets fredspris). Previous recipients of this prize includes Vytautas Landsbergis (1991), Alva Myrdal (1982), Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams. The University of Tromsø awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2000.

In December 2004, as a statement of solidarity, he was elected by the students of the University of Glasgow to serve for three years as Rector^[23]. On Friday April 22, 2005 he was formally installed in the post^[24], but cannot carry out any of its functions as he is still confined to Israel. Since then the Glasgow Herald has launched a campaign for his release.

Vanunu has been officially adopted by Nick and Mary Eoloff from Minnesota (US), a couple belonging to a Christian pacifist movement.

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

Black, Ian. Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services, Grove Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8021-3286-3
Cohen, Avner. Israel and the Bomb, New York: Columbia University Press (1999), ISBN 0-231-10483-9
Cohen, Yoel. The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Dimona & the Bomb. ISBN 0-8419-1432-X
Gaffney, Mark. Dimona: The Third Temple? The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation. ISBN 0-915597-77-2
Gilling, Tom and John McKnight. Trial and Error — Mordechai Vanunu and Israel's Nuclear Bomb. 1991 Monarch Publications. ISBN 1-85424-129-X
Hounam, Peter. The Woman from Mossad: The Torment of Mordechai Vanunu. ISBN 1-58394-005-7 paperback edition title: The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu & the Israeli Nuclear Program
Toscano, Louis. Triple Cross. 1990 Birch Lane Press ISBN 1-55972-028-X
Spiro, Gideon. Vanunu and the Israeli Bomb.