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Mordechai Vanunu Released: Time for a Nuclear Free Middle East Samar Assad, Senior Analyst, 202 338 1290, sassad@palestinecenter.org Nadia Hijab, Executive Director, 202 338 1958, nadiahijab@palestinecenter.org After serving18 years in prison for revealing Israel's nuclear program, Mordechai Vanunu, 50, a former nuclear technician at the Dimona plant, was released today from a prison in southern Israel. Although he stated that he no longer has any secrets to reveal, the Israeli press reported that the Israeli Government would ban Vanunu from leaving the country and restrict his movement and interaction with foreigners. Why Does Israel Want to Keep Vanunu Under Wraps? Vanunu's release comes at a difficult time for Israel. The International Atomic Energy Agency is investigating nuclear programs in Iran and Libya, underscoring the fact that while these two countries are cooperating with the IAEA and have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, Israel has not. Vanunu's release also comes at a tough time for the U.S., which is embroiled in a war in Iraq that it launched on the basis that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. "It's not surprising that Israel is trying to restrict Vanunu's freedom of speech," said Nadia Hijab, Palestine Center Executive Director. "Everything he says draws attention to Israel's very real nuclear stockpile. While other countries in the Middle East are under scrutiny no one is looking at Israel." The stated goal of the international community is "establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons." This is Article 14 of UN Security Council Resolution 687 of 1991, passed after the first Gulf war and the U.S.-led coalition's liberation of Kuwait. "What Arabs see is that, yet again, there are two rules of law - one for Israel and one for the rest of the world," Hijab said. "Why not give this UN resolution some teeth and have a truly nuclear-free Middle East?" A Stockpile Bigger than Britain's? In 1986, Vanunu provided the world with an inside look at Israel's top-secret nuclear plant where he had worked for nine years. He took 60 photographs and disclosed technical details of the Dimona reactor to the Sunday Times of London, which published the material on 5 October 1986. Before the story was published, Vanunu was kidnapped by Israeli agents, tried for espionage and treason, and sentenced to prison, including 11 years in solitary confinement.1. According to the evidence provided by Vanunu, Israel then had a stockpile of 100-200 weapons2. At present, Israel is believed to have at least 200 nuclear weapons-possibly more than the United Kingdom-including thermonuclear weapons3. Its intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) systems are capable of reaching most Arab countries4. Friends of Vanunu have said that his intention in revealing Israel's nuclear program was to rid the region of such weapons. In a 14 April 2004 press release the Israeli Committee for Mordechai Vanunu argue that Vanunu had "exercised the democratic principle of the public's right to know." His action, and the fact that he did not receive payment from the British paper, made him something of a hero to anti-nuclear weapons activists. However, some experts argue that his revelations contributed to the arms race in the region. How Israel Built Its Program Israel has an official policy of "nuclear ambiguity," saying it would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East. For the construction of the reactor in the desert town of Dimona, Israel sought the assistance of France. The U.S. first became aware of Dimona's existence in 1958 after U-2 spy planes photographed the facility but it was not identified as a nuclear site until two years later5. In 1960, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion stated that the Dimona complex was a nuclear research center built for "peaceful purposes6." As early as 8 December 1960, the CIA issued a report outlining Dimona's implications for nuclear proliferation, and the CIA station in Tel Aviv had determined by the mid-1960s that the Israeli nuclear weapons program was an established and irreversible fact7. Against this background, "It's time for the International Atomic Energy Agency to add Israel to its list of countries where immediate on-site inspections and full government disclosure is demanded. The U.S. should call on its ally to sign the NPT," said Palestine Center Senior Analyst, Samar Assad. .
1 The Link, April-May 2004 |
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