On This Day

Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.

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19 September

VanunuCartoonNukesISRAEL DEFEATS PLAN FOR NUCLEAR-FREE MIDDLE EAST
On this day in 2012, Israel rejected a plan by Arab governments that enjoyed the support of the Obama administration for a major conference in Helsinki to discuss the possibility of a Nuclear-free Mideast. Almost every country in the world, signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT), backed plans for the meeting in 2012 or 2013. Israel rejected the proposal as “external coercion” and said it would not take part. It is one of only three countries not to sign the NNPT.

 

 

إسرائيل تهزم الخطة لجعل الشرق الأوسط خالي من الاسلحة النووية

سبتمبر19

في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2012، رفضت إسرائيل خطة الحكومات العربية التي حظيت بدعم إدارة أوباما لعقد مؤتمر كبير في هلسنكي لمناقشة إمكانية جعل منطقة الشرق الأوسط خالية من الأسلحة النووية. تقريبا كل دول العالم، الموقعة على معاهدة عدم انتشار الأسلحة النووية، دعمت الخطط للاجتماع في 2012 أو 2013. رفضت إسرائيل الاقتراح باعتباره "ضغط خارجي" وقالت إنها لن تشارك. وهي واحدة من ثلاث دول فقط لم توقع على معاهدة عدم الانتشار النووي.

 

 At the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for “progress towards a nuclear-weapon-free-zone in the Middle East”. The final document of the review conference underscored the importance of the establishment of a NWFZ “especially in the Middle East”. The UN endorsed that all states in the region convene in a conference scheduled for 2012 to negotiate towards the implementation of the initiative. In October 2011, Finland was chosen as the host of the conference, which was to be held under UN auspices in Helsinki in December 2012.

Iran agreed to attend the negotiations. Israel, however, refused. In November, the US cancelled the Helsinki Conference.

The failure to get the relevant parties to join the negotiations marks a major setback for, and displays the fragile state of, the NPT regime in the 21st century. Parties to the NPT have a binding legal obligation to “pursue negotiations in good faith” on measures relating to “cessation of the nuclear arms race” and “nuclear disarmament” (NPT Article VI). In 1996, this obligation was reinforced in a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest judicial body in the world.

Israel Rejects U.S.-backed Arab Plan for Conference on Nuclear-free Mideast
The conference would take place in Helsinki toward the end of 2012, or early in 2013; Israel calls it 'coercion.'
Israel expressed its strong opposition on Wednesday to an Arab initiative, supported by the Obama administration, to hold a conference that would debate the possibility of a nuclear-free Middle East.

Israel nuclear weapons: UK government loses file on its involvement with country's arsenal
The National Archives in Kew revealed in August 2016 that 1970s documents on nuclear collaboration with Israel were missing.

The truth about Israel's secret nuclear arsenal
Israel has been stealing nuclear secrets and covertly making bombs since the 1950s. And western governments, including Britain and the US, turn a blind eye. But how can we expect Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions if the Israelis won't come clean?

Despite the fact that the Israel's nuclear programme has been an open secret since a disgruntled technician, Mordechai Vanunu, blew the whistle on it in 1986, the official Israeli position is still never to confirm or deny its existence...[T]he former speaker of the Knesset, Avraham Burg, broke the taboo last month, declaring Israeli possession of both nuclear and chemical weapons and describing the official non-disclosure policy as "outdated and childish". 

Israel, unlike Iran, never signed up to the 1968 NPT so could not violate it. But it almost certainly broke a treaty banning nuclear tests, as well as countless national and international laws restricting the traffic in nuclear materials and technology.

The list of nations that secretly sold Israel the material and expertise to make nuclear warheads, or who turned a blind eye to its theft, include today's staunchest campaigners against proliferation: the US, France, Germany, Britain and even Norway.

In 2004 SPSC launched a successful campaign to elect Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu as Glasgow University Rector. A majority of the Scottish Parliament signed Motion S2M-2180 put forward by Patrick Harvie:

Congratulations to Mordechai Vanunu— That the Parliament congratulates Mordechai Vanunu on his election as the 119th Rector of the University of Glasgow; believes that Vanunu’s election sends an important message to the Palestinian people expressing Scotland’s disgust at their treatment at the hands of the Israeli Government; further believes that there is no place in the Middle East, or indeed the world, for weapons of mass destruction, and calls on the British government to exert pressure on Israel to release Mr Vanunu from Israel and allow him to visit the University of Glasgow.  Lodged on 16 December 2004

 

 

 

4-minute video on Israel's nuclear arsenal