April
25, 2005
For
Whom the Bell Tolls
The
Persecution of Mordechai Vanunu
By
URI AVNERY
Tel
Aviv, Israel
An
Iranian technician called Jalal-a-Din Taheri, who had been working
at the nuclear reactor at Bushehr, managed to defect to Europe,
where he disclosed the Ayatollahs' plans for producing nuclear
bombs.
Taheri
was acclaimed a hero throughout the world. A number of organizations
nominated him for the Nobel Peace Price. President Bush praised
his courage. Ariel Sharon invited him to come and live in Israel,
even calling him one of the Righteous of the Nations. The Ayatollahs
denounced him as a traitor, infidel, Crusader and Zionist.
This
is, of course, an entirely fictitious story. But it corresponds
exactly to the story of Mordechai Vanunu, who is considered by
almost all Israelis as a despicable traitor - proving once again
that treason, like pornography, is a matter of geography.
This
week I used my privilege as a former Member of the Knesset to
attend a session of the Knesset Committee for "the Constitution,
Law and Justice", in which the Vanunu affair was discussed.
In the course of the session, Knesset members cursed each other
in the language of fishmongers (by which I mean no offence to
fishmongers). Two Likud members, Ronie Bar-On (who once served
for several hours as Attorney General before being ignominiously
removed) and Yehiel Hazan shouted that Vanunu had no human rights,
since he was not a human being. It should be mentioned in all
fairness that the chairman of the committee, Michael Eytan, also
a Likud member, strongly condemned these utterances.
Vanunu,
who in 1986 disclosed to a British newspaper some of Israel's
nuclear secrets, was kidnapped soon after by the Mossad, smuggled
back to Israel and put on trial. He served his sentence: 18 years
in prison. For most of the time he was held in total isolation.
(He told me that, in order to keep his sanity, he would read the
New Testament in English out loud, over and over again, and in
this way improved his command of this language, which he now insists
on using instead of Hebrew.)
On
his release, he was placed under severe restrictions: he is forbidden
to go abroad, forbidden to move inside the country without prior
notification of the authorities, forbidden to speak with foreigners,
forbidden to give interviews. The Supreme Court has upheld these
constraints. Vanunu has violated most of them, and some weeks
ago he was indicted for these violations.
The
restrictions were initially imposed for one year, which came to
an end this week. The Knesset committee was about to discuss the
possibility of their being extended, but a few hours before the
session, the Minister of the Interior, Ophir Pines (Labor Party)
signed an order extending for another year the prohibition of
leaving the country, and the Army Commander of the Home Front
signed an order to extend the other constraints (under Emergency
Regulations).
At
the committee meeting, the representative of the Attorney General
set out the government arguments for this extension: (a) Vanunu
still "holds in his head" dangerous secrets, (b) He
has a "phenomenal" memory, (c) If given the opportunity,
he will disclose these secrets abroad.
What
is the evidence to support this?
(a)
In one of the letters he wrote in prison, Vanunu told his correspondent
abroad that he was in possession of many more secrets, which he
had not yet disclosed. He announced his intention of revealing
these secrets at the first opportunity.
(b)
Two years before his release - that is to say, 16 years after
his work in the nuclear installation - he drew in his cell, purely
from memory, detailed and amazingly exact blueprints of the production
process. These drawings were found among the more than a thousand
documents seized in his cell.
These
facts are more than strange. An inmate who sends letters from
prison knows, of course, that they are censored. Vanunu was bound
to know that not only the prison authorities, but the intelligence
services, too, would read them. When he made the blueprints, he
certainly knew they would be seized.
All
this indicates that he intended to provoke his tormentors and
show them that he was not broken. It is difficult to take the
documents seriously, as the Supreme Court did, eight months ago,
when it confirmed the restrictions. A person who intends to disclose
dreadful secrets does not announce this in advance to the authorities,
and does not prepare blueprints for his persecutors.
Concerning the matter itself:
(a)
Does he "hold in his head" secrets that he has not disclosed
in the past?
Unlikely.
First
of all, Vanunu's knowledge concerns processes as they were 18
years ago. Can such knowledge be useful today? Hard to believe.
As Knesset Member Zehava Galon (Yahad) remarked at the session:
"It is terrifying to imagine that nothing has changed in
Israel's nuclear techniques for 19 years!"
Secondly,
before the British paper published his disclosures, Vanunu was
cross-questioned for two whole days by one of the world's leading
nuclear scientists. It is hard to believe that after that he still
had any undisclosed secrets left.
Thirdly,
it borders on paranoia to think that he was so sophisticated as
to decide, 18 years ago, to "hold in his head" secrets
in order to publish them 20 years later.
Fourthly,
Vanunu is no scientist. He worked at the reactor as a technician.
Even if he has a "phenomenal" memory, and even if his
blueprints are uncannily exact, it is hard to believe that they
have any remaining significance today.
If
this is the case, how to explain the renewal of the restrictions?
The Attorney General's representative insisted that their purpose
is not to punish him for things he has done in the past, which
would be illegal (since he has already been tried and served his
full sentence), but to prevent new crimes (the disclosure of further
secrets).
I
doubt this. One cannot silence Vanunu. The whole world is interested
in him, and the more he is persecuted, the more this interest
will grow. Vanunu cannot be deterred - he is simple undeterrible
(to coin a word). Quite the contrary. Also, it is impossible to
prevent him from coming into contact with foreigners.
(Some months ago, I was sitting in the evening in the garden of
the fabulous American Colony hotel in East Jerusalem, chatting
with the British actress Vanessa Redgrave, a tireless campaigner
for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Suddenly I noticed Vanunu strolling
by. I called him over. Vanessa Redgrave was very interested in
his experiences in prison. How can one prevent this sort of things
happening?)
There
remains only one explanation: Revenge. Yehiel Horev, the chief
of the Internal Security Division of the Ministry of Defense,
cannot forgive Vanunu for making a mockery of his security arrangements
by wandering around the parts of the installation in which he
had no business to be, freely taking photos in Israel's most secret
installation and smuggling them abroad. That is indeed infuriating.
But vengeance, too, must have its limits.
The
more so as the Attorney General's man, answering a query from
Knesset Member Etti Livni, admitted that the same arguments voiced
now will also be valid in another year's time, as well as in five
and ten years. In other words, the constraints may be lifelong.
As
for my personal opinion about the substance of the matter:
Nuclear weapons are a threat to all of us. It is impossible to
prevent indefinitely the acquisition of nuclear weapons by more
countries in the Middle East - with Iran in the lead. Other categories
of Weapons of Mass Destruction (chemical and biological) do already
exist in neighboring countries.
For
years, Israel has enjoyed a nuclear monopoly in the region. My
friends and I have warned that this monopoly is temporary, and
that we must use the time to achieve peace. The hubris of our
leaders has prevented this.
Now,
the aim must be to free the whole region from weapons of mass
destruction, under strict international and mutual inspection,
as part of a comprehensive peace settlement. That is both possible
and practical. When Vanunu rings the bells, he contributes to
the public awakening.
His
action is also important for another reason: for the first time,
he has drawn the attention of the Israeli public to the real danger
inherent in the old reactor, which is now more than 40 years old.
Several former employees have now sued the government, claiming
that they have contracted cancer (and some have died) because
of safety failures. What will happen in the case of a Chernobyl-like
disaster? Or an earthquake, or a missile strike? Who is thinking
about this? Whose responsibility is it? Who oversees those responsible?
Vanunu
rings the bells to call attention to a real danger. The question
is not whether he is a pleasant person, whether his views are
popular or what he thinks about the State of Israel, after 12
years of solitary confinement. The question is whether he is doing
a good job.
I,
for one, believe he is.