MER - Last year MER-TV made a four-part series of half-hour programs specifically about Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli "nuclear prisoner of conscience." We are making this series available again at a special low price in view of the serious situation he faces. Watching these programs is BY FAR THE BEST way to find out about the unique Vanunu case, Israel's nuclearization of the Middle East, and the international campaign to free Vanunu before it is too late.
IT IS the first sign of political support in Israel for Mordechai Vanunu, the technician imprisoned for revealing Israel's secret nuclear weapons programme. A member of Israel's parliament is to petition the High Court to release him from the solitary confinement in which he has been held for the past 10 years.
Dedi Zucker, a member of the Knesset, said last week that he feared for Vanunu's sanity if he was held in isolation much longer. He also revealed that he had received a letter from Vanunu in which he described for the first time the precise circumstances in which he was abducted by agents of Mossad, the Israeli security force, after revealing the country's nuclear secrets to The Sunday Times.
"I truly believe that the purpose of keeping Vanunu in solitary confinement all this time is to make sure that when he does get out, he will be insane and therefore nobody will pay attention to him," said Zucker, who is a member of the left-wing Meretz party. "From what I have heard and from my last meeting with Vanunu, there is no doubt that there is a severe deterioration in his mental health.
He claims that the BBC is broadcasting disinformation against him, that all his friends are Mossad agents, and that there is a worldwide conspiracy of espionage to drive him crazy." Psychiatrists said yesterday that Vanunu's delusions are symptomatic of paranoia, common in those deprived of contact with the outside world for significant lengths of time. Zucker will argue in the High Court that there is no point in Vanunu being prevented from having contact with others since he had already told his story. However, this is certain to be unpopular in Israel where Vanunu is considered a traitor who was justly punished. Vanunu, now 42, had travelled to London to reveal information about Israel's production of nuclear bombs at the secret installation of Dimona, where he had worked as a technician, when he was kidnapped by Mossad agents. With special dispensation from the government, Zucker was allowed to visit Vanunu twice in the past three years. But since the election last year of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, all further access has been denied. On Zucker's last visit, however, Vanunu did manage to smuggle a letter to the politician, who said it appeared to be one of the last lucid communications from the former nuclear technician. In the letter Vanunu described for the first time and in his own words how he was abducted and pleaded for Zucker's help. The letter confirms many of the details of a Sunday Times investigation into his disappearance. "On 24-9-86 I met an American girl in Leicester Square in London and later met her several times," Vanunu wrote. "On 30-9-86 she persuaded me to go with her to Rome to visit her sister. We left London on British Airways flight 504 and arrived in Rome. "There she was met by an Italian who introduced himself as a friend of her sister's and he took us in his private car to a flat in a suburb outside Rome. As I entered the flat, I was attacked by two men, who then drugged me by means of injections." Vanunu wrote that he regained consciousness in a car and tried to cause an accident, but was then drugged again. "I woke up when they arrived in the dark at the seaside," he claimed. "There they carried me on a stretcher in a commando boat to a yacht. On the yacht I was held in a cabin shackled by handcuffs and a chain to the bed for seven days until we reached the coast of Israel." Vanunu wrote that in a closed court hearing he had been forbiddden to say the word "Italy" or "boat", presumably to hide from the judges the fact that he had been kidnapped. The letter ended on a plaintive note. "It seems to me," Vanunu wrote, "they're seeking all sorts of excuses for silencing me, to silence the whole story."