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.
30 September
NUCLEAR WHISTLEBLOWER KIDNAPPED FROM ROME
On this day in 1986, Mordechai Vanunu was forcibly injected, kidnapped from a European capital, Rome, and taken to Israel after confirming in the Sunday Times the existence of Israel’s nuclear arsenal. He spent 18 years in prison, 11 in solitary, a form of torture. In 2004 SPSC ran a successful campaign to have him elected Glasgow University Rector on a platform of Palestinian rights and opposition to aggressive wars in Iraq and elsewhere. He is still barred from leaving Israel to this day.
اختطاف الفني الذي كشف النقاب عن الترسانة النوية الاسرائيلية
سبتمبر30
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 1986، تم حقن وتخديرمردخاي فانونو بالقوة، واختطافه من عاصمة أوروبية، روما، و نقله إلى إسرائيل بعد تأكيده في صحيفة صنداي تايمز عن وجود ترسانة إسرائيل النووية. أمضى فانونو 18 سنة في السجن، 11منها في الحبس الانفرادي، وهو شكل من أشكال التعذيب. في عام 2004، أجرت جماعة التضامن الإسكوتلندية مع فلسطين حملة ناجحة لانتخابه رئيس جامعة جلاسكو على أساس دعم الحقوق الفلسطينية ومعارضة الحروب العدوانية في العراق وأماكن أخرى. لا يزال فانونو ممنوعا من مغادرة إسرائيل.
Vanunu disappeared after leaving his London hotel on Sept. 30, five days before the UK Sunday Times named him as its primary source for a report that Israel secretly built the world's sixth largest nuclear arsenal.
Mordechai Vanunu was released from prison on April 21, 18 years after his arrest for revealing secrets about Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Vanunu offered details and pictures of Israel’s Diamona nuclear reactor to the Sunday Times in 1986, undermining Israel’s policy of “nuclear ambiguity” and leading analysts to conclude that Israel possessed between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons. Before the article was published, he was abducted in Rome by Mossad and convicted of treason in Israel in a closed trial.
Upon his release in 2004, Vanunu said he was proud of his actions and condemned his treatment in prison, where he spent more than 11 years in solitary confinement. He called on Israel to open up the Dimona nuclear reactor to international inspections, saying Israel has no need for nuclear weapons.
Claiming to fear that he would reveal further secrets, the Israeli government placed severe restrictions on Vanunu following his release, forbidding him from leaving the country, restricting his movements within Israel, and limiting his foreign contacts. Vanunu said he had no more secrets to reveal.
The Israeli claim is absurd for three obvious reasons: he had given all his secrets to the Sunday Times in 1984; nuclear technology had moved on so much during Vanunu's 18 years incarceration, more so in the 37 years till today, that he could not have any worthwhile information to share; he had met with numerous people in Jerusalem, including SPSC members, to whom he could easily have passed on any information he had. His detention within the borders of the State he wishes to leave is motivated purely by revenge, spite and fear of Vanunu becoming a spokeperson for nuclear disarmament and a constant reminder of Israel's nuclear arsenal and banditry.
In February 2008 Glasgow City Council voted by a large majority to support campaigns for the release of Mordechai Vanunu. So-called "Scottish Jewish community leaders" had the temerity to criticise Glasgow City Council for even "allowing a debate", a sign of the Zionist hostility to free speech.
