Mordechai Vanunu has been released from jail, 18 months after he was abducted by Mossad in Rome. Vanunu blew the whistle on Israel's "secret" nuclear weapons facility at Dimona. Most people with an interest in the Middle East already suspected Israel had the bomb, (or rather 100 - 200 bombs) but given there had been no public debate or sanction for the country's nuclear weapons programme, his disclosures weren't very welcome. Hence the kidnapping and 18 months in jail.
No doubt Israel's defenders will point out that had Vanunu been a citizen of an Arab regime with nuclear weapons, he wouldn't now be alive and celebrating his freedom. This misses the point a bit. None of the Arab regimes have nuclear weapons. Israel is the only country in the Middle East with weapons of mass destruction (in case you're still looking, Mr Bush). They're illegal and - even now, 18 years on - they're still technically a secret.
So it's impossible to view Vanunu as a straightforward traitor. He acted out of conscience. His capture and subsequent imprisonment was, at the very least, legally suspect. His treatment (lengthy periods of solitary confinement in a cell with bright lights permanently switched on) was, as he described it today "cruel and barbaric" (not to say maliciously punitive).
The Israel he encounters now is very different to the one he left behind in 1986. Then, it might have been possible to make an argument for it being a "shining light" in the Middle East: the only democracy in the region. Not now. And what happened to him is a large part of the reason why.
One final thought. I hope Vanunu is getting a few quid from Mr Murdoch. Had he been protected more efficiently by the Sunday Times (to whom he was telling his story at the time of his capture) none of this might have happened. They owe him.
Vanunu's message to reporters in 1986, revealing how he'd been captured.
Comments