Israel’s Scottish Office accuses Vanunu of ‘abetting terrorism’

Herald Thu Nov 25 2004 Herald MEMORANDUM from Israel Information Office in Scotland
Jan 16, 2005
Israeli spokesman claims Vanunu aids and abets terrorism
"Condign punishment for a spy and a traitor
IT IS a student prerogative to make nugatory political gesture such as the candidature of Mordechai Vanunu for election as lord rector of Glasgow University. You correctly point out (November 23) that this proposal, sponsored by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee, will do nothing to further student interests. But you go on to accept the spin of Mr Vanunu's courage as a "whistleblower".

Student activism is one thing, editorial imbalance – even inaccuracy – is another. Mordechai Vanunu worked for the Atomic Research Reactor in Dimona. He surreptitiously collected information, photographs and materials that, under Israeli law, were secret. He smuggled the information abroad and agreed to its publication in the Sunday Times in October, 1986. Vanunu provided information, which he claimed to be true, concerning the security arrangements for the reactor, procedures for hiring personnel, the routes that employees took to work every morning, and the exact place where workers were picked up by buses. He could not have been unaware of the fact that every intelligence service, in particular those of countries that maintain a state of war with Israel, would glean from it facts and knowledge which could be used to the detriment of Israel. The details he revealed had the effect of setting up the reactor and its workers for military or terrorist attack. After publication of Vanunu's article, a group of PLO terrorists hijacked a bus transporting workers to the reactor. Three of these workers were killed, and eight other women employees were wounded in the hijacking. Vanunu's trial opened before the Jerusalem District Court in December 1986 and concluded in March 1988. During all of the proceedings, Vanunu was represented by defence counsel of his choice. Vanunu was not tried for his anti-nuclear views or actions, but for violating sections of the Israel penal law. Every modern nation, not least Britain, has similar laws which prohibit the gathering and publication of information classified as secret. Vanunu was found guilty of each of the charges and was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. Such condign punishment is the penalty paid by spies and traitors in all countries. Vanunu repeatedly declared his intention to make public additional secret information in his possession the moment he had the opportunity to do so. The licence for his ultimate release stipulated that he was forbidden to speak to foreign newsmen, a condition he circumvented almost immediately. Unsurprisingly, he has now been re-arrested. Students, and your leader-writer, may like to ponder these readily verifiable facts.

Ezra Golombok, Israel Information Office,222 Fenwick Road, Giffnock"

Herald Fri Nov 26 2004
GU Palestine Solidarity Society rebut Israel's claims
In defence of Vanunu
Governments, of course, lie, as British citizens know too well, but the Israelis have always gone for the Olympic gold. The Israeli government spokesman, Mr Golombok (November 25), has the brazen cheek to condemn Mordechai Vanunu for the "crime" of exposing Israel's secret programme of WMD development, when such a programme is illegal and such weapons in the hands of an Ariel Sharon are deeply disturbing to a majority of Scots.

Mr Golombok is a spokesman for a government which kills hundreds of Palestinian children every year, while Mordechai Vanunu is a man who has suffered more than anyone for the cause of peace. Israel's attempt to smear Vanunu as a supporter of terrorism has been going on for some time; the word "chutzpah" comes to mind. Vanunu's 12 years of solitary confinement – surely a form of torture – is the penalty, says Mr Golombok in words appropriate to some B-movie villain, "paid by spies and traitors". Yet Vanunu acted from the highest motives, while Israel continues to flout UN resolutions and imprison Palestinians in ghettoes which have evoked anger in the whole civilised world.

As for Golombok's bizarre claim that "Vanunu repeatedly declared his intention to make public additional secret information in his possession the moment he had the opportunity to do so", he had such an opportunity when we met recently. He has access to a fax machine and e-mail and has disclosed nothing. No-one entombed in the Israeli gulag while nuclear technology developed over almost 20 years could have anything to reveal. His continued detention in Israel is motivated by spite and a feeling that they have a Bush-given right to commit any crime, whether emptying a magazine into a 13-year-old schoolgirl or detaining a man considered a hero around the world for his opposition to Israel's secret WMDs and its crimes against the people of Palestine.

Mick Napier, Chair, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, 2 Princes Street, Edinburgh. chair@scottishpsc.org.uk