IN AN UNEXPECTED move, the Israeli government recently released nuclear prisoner of conscience Mordechai Vanunu from solitary confinement.
This is the first time since his kidnapping in 1986 that Vanunu has been allowed to mix with other people. The conditions under which he was held have been described by Amnesty International as "cruel and inhuman".
It is likely that fears for his mental stability prompted this relaxation; campaigners hope that it will be followed by Vanunu's release from gaol on licence later this year.
Mordechai Vanunu, a Morocco-b orn Israeli citizen, worked as a technician at Israel's Dimona nuclear weapons plant from 1977 to 1985, when he was dismissed for his political views. As a part-time student at Beersheba University, Vanunu joined Campus, a joint Jewish-Arab student political group, mixed socially with Palestinians, and was elected on the left slate to the student council.
His politics moved steadily to the left. He demonstrated for a Palestinian state, in support of Israeli draft resisters, and for equality for Palestinian students. He recognised that Israel had been built on the systematic dispossession of the Palestinian Arabs, and called for negotiations with the PLO, full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the return of the Palestinian refugees.
Given his political activity, his dismissal from Dimona could not have been a great surprise. However, before he finally left, Vanunu managed to take a camera into the plant and snatch scores of photos of its operations.
He then left - with the film - for Australia, where he eventually made contact with the Sunday Times Insight team, who were working on an expose of Israel's nuclear bombs. Piecing together information from Vanunu (who, despite Israeli claims, received not a penny from the newspaper) and from the photos, with other material, the Sunday Times published an article in October 1986, identifying Israel as the world's sixth largest nuclear power, with as many as 200 nuclear bombs. Word of this scoop had meanwhile reached the Sunday Mirror, then owned by Robert Maxwell and a rival paper to the Times. Maxwell and Daily Mirror forHe eign editor Nick Davies, were both working recognised with Israel's foreign that Israel had intelligence service, been built on the Mossad. They informed the systematic dispos- Israelis of Vanunu's session of the whereabouts, and published an Palestinian Israeli-inspired article Arabs attempting to discredit him. By the time the Sunday Times article appeared, Vanunu himself was back in Israel, having been lured from London to Rome by Mossad, who then drugged him and smuggled him onto a boat. Israel's Prime Minister who ordered this act of piracy, Shimon Peres, had thirty years earlier, as director general of the Defence Ministry, been in charge of the development of Israel's nuclear weapons programme. Vanunu was charged with treason and espionage, charges which can carry the death penalty. Particular anger was expressed at his conversion to Christianity; the state prosecutor described this as "betrayal of his family and his country". There was stringent censorship of the case and related Isculac After Vanunu managed to tell the story of his kidnapping by writing on his palm and holding it up to the window of the prison van, he was brought to court handcuffed, wearing boxing gloves and with a helmet over his head. Vanunu's brother, Meir, was himself threatened with a criminal prosecution for discussing the trial with journalists. Some of the evidence was kept secret from the defence, and the full judgement is still confidential. Following his conviction, Vanunu was only allowed to meet his family, his lawyers and a priest. He was recently adopted by an American Christian pacifist couple, who are attempting to get him US citizenship and consular protection. Their recent prison visit was cut short when he started to speak about his kidHe was napping. Thus the brought to court new relaxation is all handcuffed, wearing the more unexpected. boxing gloves and Mordechai with a helmet over Vanunu has spent eleven-and-a-half his head. years in solitary confinement. Although his transfer to regular prison conditions is welcome, we continue to call for his immediate release. There should also be a full investigation into the Israeli intelligence networks in Britain and Europe, and their role in the illegal kidnapping.