Mordechai Vanunu:

A magnificent traitor to Israel!

by Yorgos Mitralias

It took an Iranian missile striking the Israeli city of Dimona for us to remember (once again) the incredible story of Mordechai Vanunu. And also the great lesson it teaches us: there are, though few in number, Israeli Jews who resist the barbarism of the genocidal Israeli state, thus continuing the long tradition of struggle by the Jewish diaspora for democracy, the freedom of the oppressed, and revolutionary and internationalist socialism. A diaspora that can boast, among others, of an Einstein who, as early as 1948, issued a warning by denouncing Menachem Begin—Netanyahu’s mentor and procursor—as “fascist and terrorist.” (1) Or Marek Edelman, the sole surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, who wanted no connection with the Zionist state, declaring that “for me, there is no place for a chosen people or a promised land.” (…) When one chooses to live among millions of Arabs, one must mix with them and let assimilation and intermarriage do their work.” (2) We are therefore republishing below our 2006 article, written when Vanunu was released from prison, and especially the one we dedicated to him in 1988, when the Israeli court sentenced him to 18 years of imprisonment—and solitary confinement.

Y.M.

Mordechai Vanunu: A magnificent traitor

Exactly 18 years after his incarceration and without having been granted a single day (!) of sentence reduction on his 18-year prison term, the “traitor” and “spy” Mordechai Vanunu was released from his Israeli prison.So, is this “great prisoner” of our century finally free? Let’s not be naive. The Israeli state’s incredible vendetta has not and cannot come to an end. Bans, restrictions, and threats of new prosecutions of all kinds are raining down on the “free” Mordechai, as if his mere existence constituted the greatest threat to the Zionist state.

This time, the various Sharons and Peres, but also those compatriots who greeted him at the prison gate with the eloquent banner “kill Vanunu,” have reason to worry. Vanunu is not giving up, and that already seems like a great miracle. He is not content merely to declare, “I am proud of what I did.” He now goes even further: “There should be no Jewish state. Jews and Palestinians should live wherever they want.” And to leave no doubt, Mordechai, who entered prison at age 30 and is leaving today at age 50, affirms his identity: “I am a defender of the Arab world”!

Sixteen years ago, we wondered exactly who this Vanunu was (see the text below). Today, we can answer that question, now certain that we are not mistaken. Yes, Vanunu is indeed a traitor. One of those rare and exceptional traitors who save the honor of humanity at a time when it is five minutes to midnight on the clock of History. One of the few to choose the most difficult path—that of betraying his “race,” his nation, and his state—in order to defend, even if alone against the tide, more universal values such as solidarity, justice, or simple human dignity.

The Zionist state knows all this very well, and that is why it fears him more than anything else. And precisely because Mordechai Vanunu is a worthy heir to the long tradition of Jewish “heretics”—Spinoza and Marx, Einstein and Luxemburg, Freud and Trotsky, the socialist Bund, and the insurgents of the Warsaw Ghetto—he must disappear without leaving a trace behind him. A futile effort. Even if the road is still long, even if the victories of barbaric nationalism multiply, the future—if it exists—belongs to those who choose to swim against the tide to remain faithful to what makes life worth living. Traitors of all nations, unite…

Mordechai Vanunu’s Lonely Struggle

By Yorgos Mitralias

Perhaps in ten, twenty, or thirty years, there will be an international peace prize named after Mordechai Vanunu. Perhaps then Vanunu will be a role model for his country, Israel, and for young students around the world. Perhaps even the great figures of that era would compete to spout platitudes about Vanunu’s “moral stature.” But today, Vanunu is no longer a hero. He is a mere convict, branded a “traitor” and a “spy”…

On March 27, the Israeli authorities were not only facing the Palestinian uprising. Although they had long opted for absolute secrecy and the tactic of feigned indifference, they now had to weather the deluge of international reactions following the sentencing of nuclear technician Vanunu to 18 years in prison. For Foreign Minister and member of the Socialist International, Mr. Shimon Peres, Vanunu was nothing more than a traitor who “had undermined Israel’s security” (Peres’ statement before the court).

However, Mr. Peres’s involvement in the Vanunu affair is not limited to this terse statement. Mr. Peres was Prime Minister of Israel when he made the decision to order Vanunu’s abduction in Rome, a few days after his revelations in the London Sunday Times. As always, the Israeli secret service operation was planned and carried out flawlessly. Nor was the blonde Mata Hari missing from the scene, who seduced the “traitor” in order to lure him closer to the Mossad’s hounds. After that, sending the “package” to Tel Aviv was merely a formality… It was December 1986.

But why all this mobilization and this massive international scandal? Perhaps because the former technician at the Dimona nuclear power plant, in the Negev Desert, had revealed to the British newspaper that Israel was indeed the world’s sixth nuclear power? Perhaps because he had assured the global public that Israel already possessed at least 100 nuclear warheads? Probably not, since all of this was more or less common knowledge. In reality, Vanunu’s crime was setting a bad example. In a country that believes it survives only because it consciously cultivates the ideology of the “besieged bunker,” any transgression must be ruthlessly suppressed. Vanunu therefore had to be punished to set an example.

The state’s kidnappers, however, did not seem so sure of their arguments. In other eras, someone guilty of “high treason and collaboration with the enemy in wartime” would have been subjected to a public spectacle and become the target of the crowd’s infamous chauvinistic hysteria. In Mordechai Vanunu’s case, however, the exact opposite occurred. Secrecy, isolation, no communication with the outside world, and a trial behind closed doors! The accused could indeed turn into the accuser.

And of course, that is exactly what happened. In thanking—through his brother, who is also wanted by Israeli security services for revealing details about Mordechai’s abduction—the committee that awarded him the alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award) last December, Vanunu stated regarding nuclear weapons: “Even if we cannot stop them, we can at least raise awareness about them, alert the world to their existence… and thus increase the number of people who resist. Our role is to be the angry prophets”!

However, one must not believe that Vanunu was able to speak freely even once. Even this official speech was censored by his country’s military censors. The excerpts we quote are those approved by the censors…

“I am now in prison and cannot speak freely as I would like to. However, everyone knows what I did and what my intentions and objectives were. It was a positive action and it was partially successful.” And the only message Vanunu has managed to get out of prison in the past 18 months ended as follows: “Passive acceptance and tolerance of nuclear weapons constitute the evil of today’s society. Nuclear weapons are human creations. Man made them; man created these means of destruction to commit suicide. “But man can change his mind”… “I want to continue fighting against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Despite imprisonment and hardships, I am confident and certain that I acted as I should have”!

Naive? A romantic hero who, by misfortune, lives in our cynical age? Who, then, is Mordechai Vanunu?

Judging by the committees that awarded him the prize, which we mentioned above—the prize from the Denmark-based Peace Foundation— Vanunu “embodies an example of personal courage because he followed the dictates of his conscience in his moral opposition to nuclear weapons, and because he revealed what must be considered one of the world’s best-kept secrets—Israel’s nuclear arsenal—without regard for the grave dangers he would face” (excerpt from the statement of reasons for the second international prize) .

Judging also by the content of the appeal in support of Vanunu signed by 12 Nobel laureates and 8 renowned scientists (L. Pauling, Carl Sagan, N. Tinbergen, Hans Bethe, W. Weisskopf, etc.), the act of which Vanunu is accused “constitutes a moral duty understood by conscientious scientists around the world.” And of course, it is no coincidence that, among these eminent scientists who bow before the “solitary courage” of the young Israeli technician, we recognize the names of three figures who, in 1946, co-signed with Albert Einstein the declaration in which the danger of a nuclear holocaust was highlighted for the first time…

And yet, Vanunu is imprisoned and in solitary confinement, in the hope (!) of regaining his freedom in… 2004, provided, of course, that he demonstrates good behavior, as the presiding judge informed him. In any case, “Mordechai is not despairing. He wants to continue his fight” (statement by his lawyer immediately after his sentencing).

Is the “naive” Vanunu, then, a romantic? But if so, who are the realists?

Published in the May 1988 issue of the magazine “Tétarto”

Notes 

1. When Einstein Called “Fascists” Those Who Rule Israel for The Last 44 Years…: https://janataweekly.

2. Legendary Warsaw Ghetto and Anti-Apartheid Fighters Support the Palestinian Resistance! :  https://www.counterpunch.org/

Translated from Greek