WASHINGTON, 26 February 2004 — After serving nearly 18 years in an Israeli prison, 111 of them in solitary confinement, Mordechai Vanunu should be a free man on April 21. Now 49 years old, he has spent the prime of his life locked in a 6-foot by 9-foot cell in Ashkelon prison for blowing the whistle on Israel’s secret nuclear arsenal. Vanunu’s friends and enemies alike worry about what will happen next. As his release date nears, Vanunu is said to be in good spirits. He knows he did the right thing by telling Israelis and the rest of the world what his country was up to, and he looks forward to a new beginning. He’d like to move to the United States, where his adoptive parents live, and become a history teacher. One of 11 children born to Moroccan Jewish parents, Vanunu immigrated to Israel in 1963, when he was 9 years old. Following his obligatory service in the Israel Defense Forces, he worked for 10 years as a technician at Israel’s Dimona nuclear research center in the Negev Desert. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, inside what it claimed was a textile factory in Dimona, Israel built an underground plutonium separation plant and a bomb assembly factory. The underground complex extended six stories beneath the two-story building.
For years Israel has maintained a policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither denying nor confirming that it possesses nuclear weapons. Because it objects to international inspections, Israel has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty unlike Iran, Iraq or North Korea. Israel’s weapons of mass destruction thus remain uncounted and unregulated. Troubled by his work with Israel’s nuclear bomb program, Vanunu decided to leave the country. Before he left, however, he took photographs inside the factory to document Israel’s undisclosed nuclear weapons program. He then backpacked through Asia and ended up in Sydney, Australia, where he became active in an Anglican Church social justice community. In 1986, he converted to Christianity.
His story about his experiences in Dimona came to the attention of Britain’s Sunday Times, which flew him to London. The newspaper prepared to publish Vanunu’s startling revelations: Tiny Israel had become a major nuclear power, rivaling Britain, China and France. For two decades the Jewish state had been producing weapons clandestinely at Dimona and possessed at least 100 and as many as 200 nuclear weapons.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Vanunu very nearly was assassinated. In a Reuters report published in the Feb. 5, 2004 Haaretz, former Mossad Director Shabtai Shavit admitted that, after first learning about the Sunday Times interview, his spy agency considered assassinating Vanunu.
But, Shavit said, Jews do not do that to other Jews. He was a traitor, so in accordance with Jewish morality and Jewish law he paid for it with imprisonment. Thus, even before the Sunday Times went to press in a scheme masterminded by Shavit the then 31-year-old Vanunu was lured from London to Rome by Cindy (in real life Cheryl Ben Tov), a blonde American Mossad agent who now lives in Orlando, Florida with her husband, Ofer, a former major in the Israeli intelligence service. On Sept. 30, 1986, he was kidnapped, drugged, hustled onto a ship and spirited from Rome back to Israel. After a seven-month secret trial, Vanunu was found guilty of espionage and treason and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
With Mordechai’s long ordeal drawing to an end, the Washington Report contacted the Eoloffs to ask what they thought might be in store for their son. They explained how they first heard Mordechai’s incredible story from Sam Day, who, until his death in January 2001, was campaign coordinator of the US Campaign to Free Mordecai Vanunu. The campaign now is coordinated by Felice Cohen-Joppa. After exchanging letters for years, the couple’s affection for the isolated prisoner grew, along with their frustration and a sense of powerlessness. If they could adopt Vanunu , thought these earnest Americans, they would be allowed to visit him in prison and, they believed, they could petition then-President Bill Clinton, who might help strike a deal in which Mordechai could finish his sentence in the US.
Clinton, however, refused to help the Eoloffs. Over the years, Vanunu repeatedly was denied parole or early release because, the courts charged, he could divulge secrets. Vanunu’s adoptive father and his wife last visited him in November. The Eoloffs will be there to greet him, along with Mordechai’s friends and supporters from around the world, Nick told the Washington Report. In addition to Mordechai’s American friends and family, Nick said, will be a good number of his UK supporters.
The Eoloffs are determined to help their son obtain a new Israeli passport and leave Israel if possible. But, according to the latest news reports (Feb. 25), the Israeli government has decided to hold Vanunu in administrative detention, perhaps under a gag order, and prevent him from leaving the country after his release. “Shin Beit, Israel’s secret police, had already paid him a visit to ask about his future plans,” Nick said.
Mary Eoloff is worried about her son’s safety as long as he stays in Israel. “But I’m not going to rest easy until he is safe.” Mary also said her son needs letters from the outside world, both to cheer him and to remind Israel that Mordechai is not a non-person. With every letter sent to her son, to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, to ambassadors, public officials and newspapers both in Israel and around the world Mordechai’s chance for freedom improves.
The Israeli press already is discussing the whistle blower’s crime and speculating about damage control measures after his release. According to unnamed security sources, the Justice Ministry may refuse to issue Vanunu an Israeli passport in order to prevent him from leaving the country, and may subject to military censorship any press interviews he gives.
In 1986 the international community allowed Israel to kidnap Vanunu on foreign soil, try him in secret and incarcerate for 18 years a man guilty only of whistle blowing. The world is watching now to see if Israel will allow Vanunu, who has paid a heavy price for his convictions, to enjoy life and freedom. For too long the world has turned a blind eye to Israel’s nuclear arsenal. In recent months, however, the climate has changed. Libya, Iran, North Korea, India and Pakistan now discuss their weapons programs, and Israel’s neighbors are calling for a nuclear-free Middle East. It may be in Israel’s interest to take this opportunity to join the nearly 150 nations that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to come clean about its nuclear and biological weapons programs.
— Delinda C. Hanley is News Editor/Executive Director, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs magazine.
