SHIKMA
PRISON, Israel, April 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -
Mordechai Vanunu, the technician who has blown the whistle on
Israel’s undeclared nuclear secrets, called Wednesday, April 21, for
opening Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant for international inspection.
"Israel
doesn't need nuclear arms, especially now that all the Middle East is
free from nuclear weapons. My message today to the world is: Open
Dimona reactor for inspections," Vanunu told an impromptu news
briefing as he walked free from Shikma prison in southern Israel where
he spent 18 years of his life.
The
one-time technician at the Dimona nuclear plant in the southern Negev
desert was jailed was abducted by Israeli secret service agents in
Italy, smuggled back to Israel and then jailed back in 1986 after
leaking details of the plant to Britain's Sunday Times
newspaper.
‘Proud,
Happy’
Far
from showing contrition, defiant Vanunu said at the end of his jail
term he was "proud and happy" of having lifted the lid on
Israel's nuclear capability, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"To
all those who are calling me traitor, I am proud and happy that I did
what I did," he said.
Vanunu
refused to answer questions in Hebrew as he was flanked by several
Israeli troops.
His
ironically titled poem "I am your spy," which was composed
in prison, bears eloquent testimony to his belief that he has been
invested with a mission to save the region from nuclear catastrophe.
"I
have no choice. I am a little guy, a citizen, an ordinary fellow, but
I will do my duty. I have heard the voice of my conscience. And
there's nowhere to run," wrote Vanunu from his prison.
In
a sharp contrast, a group of Israelis called for Vanunu’s death as
he stepped out of the prison under heavy guard, while foreign admirers
and his supporters released doves of peace into the air.
But
the two camps are in agreement on one thing at least: the incredible
determination of a man who has spent more than 11 years in solitary
confinement at the start of his term.
His
time behind bars has certainly left its mark. Now aged 50, he has put
on weight and his hair has thinned to a few strands around the
temples.
Insisting
that he has "no more secrets" to reveal, Vanunu said he is
ready to start a new life, hoping to travel to the U.S. and get
married.
‘Cruel,
Barbaric’
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|
Supporters
of Vanunu gather to welcome him outside Shikma prison (AFP)
|
He
lamented he was given "very cruel and barbaric treatment" by
Israel's security services.
Vanunu
said Israel's Mossad and the Shin Bet security services tried to rob
him of his sanity by keeping him in solitary confinement for nearly 12
years.
"I
said to the Shabak [security agency], the Mossad, you didn't succeed
to break me, you didn't succeed to make me crazy."
Vanunu,
who was disowned by his family for abandoning Judaism and converting
to Protestantism in 1980s, said that he was victimized by Israel as a
result of his conversion.
"I
suffered here because I was a Christian .... Only because I was a
Christian," he told reporters awaiting anxiously his release.
Vanunu
now signs his letters with the initials J.C., which stand for his new
Christian name John Crossman.
The
completion of his sentence is unlikely to lead to a reunification with
his father Shlomo, a former rabbi, and his mother.
Vanunu
has been legally adopted by a couple from Minnesota, Nick and Mary
Eoloff, who have traveled to Israel for his release.
"We
believe that what he did was an act of civil disobedience and not a
crime," Nick Eoloff told AFP.
His
brother, Meir Vanunu, has also been supportive and voiced concern for
his safety.
Vanunu
settled in Israel as a boy when his devoutly Jewish family emigrated
from Morocco in 1963.
After
three years of national service, he signed up to work as a nuclear
technician in Dimona.
Often
working nightshifts at the plant, he also found time to study
philosophy and geography at the nearby university of Beersheva where
associates say he began his drift to the left, becoming increasingly
active against Israel's ill-fated 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
But
his revolt against his background led him to cross what Israelis of
all political persuasions regard as a red line.
Now
Vanunu is not allowed to have a passport, use the Internet, approach
ports and airports, and has been told not to talk to foreigners
without permission.
Israel's
Growing Arsenal
While
the U.S. is pressing Iran over its alleged nuclear arsenal and is
accused of having misled
and lied to the world over Iraq's alleged WMDs, Israel's
nuclear arsenal has grown from an estimated 13 nuclear bombs in 1967
to 400 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, according to a report
published by The Los Angles Times last October.
For
reactor design and construction, Israel sought the assistance of
France.
Nuclear
cooperation between the two nations dates back as far as the early
1950's, when construction began on France's 40MWt heavy water reactor
and a chemical reprocessing plant at Marcoule.
In
the fall of 1956, France agreed to provide Israel with an 18 MWt
research reactor.
On
October 3, 1957, the two countries inked a revised agreement calling
for France to build a 24 MWt reactor, known as Dimona, and, in
protocols that were not committed to paper, a chemical reprocessing
plant, according to the LA Times.
In
early 1968, the CIA issued a report concluding that Israel had
successfully started production of nuclear weapons. (Click
here to read the history of Israel's nuclear arsenal.)
The
Washington Post also revealed last October that Israel has
succeeded in modifying
U.S.-made cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads
to be launched from submarines.
U.S.
intelligence agencies routinely omit Israel from semiannual reports to
Congress identifying countries developing weapons of mass destruction
to protect the country from any economic or military sanctions.
