[A-List] Israel: no arms inspectors, please

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Israel's arms inspector

Hilary Wainwright
Friday October 4, 2002
The Guardian

Sixteen years ago this week, an agent of the Israeli secret police,
Mossad, enticed the Israeli nuclear technician, Mordechai Vanunu, to
Rome. The holiday ended abruptly when Mordechai was kidnapped and taken
to Israel, where he was charged with espionage and treason and given a
prison sentence of 18 years. His crime? In 1986 he had blown the whistle
on Israel's nuclear weapons.

In the absence of any international inspection of Israel's nuclear
capacity, Vanunu was our unofficial, DIY arms inspector. He is now held
in Israel's highest security prison, having spent 12 of his last 16
years in solitary confinement. Neither the UN nor any individual member
of the security council has questioned his imprisonment or demanded that
Israel's nuclear capacity be opened to international inspection.

His story reads like a tragic thriller. But it's real life. As real as
the fact that the Dimona nuclear weapons factory where Vanunu worked,
together with the biological and chemical weapons factory in Nes Zion,
is still not open to international inspection. In 1994 Jane's
Intelligence Review, the world authority on the arms industry, confirmed
that Israel has 200 nuclear warheads, making it the world's sixth
largest nuclear power. The same politicians who now threaten military
invasion of Iraq because of suspected nuclear weapons capacities, have
not demanded inspection of Israel's known nuclear weapons.

The double standards that scream at you whenever you see the words
"weapons of mass destruction" cannot be excused on the grounds that
Israel is abiding by international regulations. Israel refuses to sign
any treaty regulating the use of nuclear weapons. All correspondence
concerning the nuclear non-proliferation agreement, the nuclear test ban
treaty and other copiously negotiated agreements on weapons of mass
destruction go into the Israeli government's rubbish bins. Yet Israel
receives $3bn (£2bn) of aid, annually, from the US. This is despite
legislation, the Symington Accord, to prevent US governments from
granting aid to countries who develop nuclear weapons outside of
international control and agreement. Sharon claims that, until there is
peace in the Middle East, Israel will do what it likes with its weapons.
Sharon's policies of occupation, past and present, of all surrounding
territories, Palestinian, Syrian, Egyptian and Lebanese suggests that
what he likes is aggression. And, unlike in 1991, he has already
threatened a nuclear response to any Iraqi attack.

MPs defending Tony Blair's close relationship with President Bush claim
that he has more influence "in the tent than outside". Many of them
agree with anti-war campaigners that action in Iraq must be combined
with action over Israel's violation of UN resolutions on Palestine. This
month, the Vanunu committee in Israel will test Tony Blair 's
transatlantic influence by asking Kofi Annan to apply the same UN arms
inspection requirements that it is applying to Iraq, to Israel. Egypt
has been making this demand for some time. It's a demand that requires
support in the security council. Will our prime minister use his
influence on Bush and support this reasonable request? I fear not.

But surely the British government could do something about Vanunu, and
make up for the Thatcher government failure, after the kidnapping in
1986, to take any action over Mossad's flagrant breach of international
law? The dossier on Iraq's nuclear weapons, on which Blair rests his
case for armed intervention, relies explicitly on information from Iraqi
whistleblowers. These men have been given the status of heroes.
Meanwhile Vanunu has still not been granted the parole he was due three
years ago. He is a prisoner of conscience. He signed a contract of
secrecy at Dimona without being told the whole truth, and when he
discovered the true nature of his work he spoke out. Amnesty
International has been calling for his release for years. The British
government has supported legislation that encourages whistleblowers to
speak out in the public interest. It could now - applying Article 19 of
the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the
freedom to impart information regardless of national boundaries - give
its support to a man who has spoken out in the interests of the whole of
humanity. A spokesman for the foreign office made it clear that it will
not be supporting Vanunu's application for parole when it comes up on
October 29.

Vanunu wrote a poem that described his transition from technician to
citizen: "Rise and cry out... You are the secret agent of the people.
You are the eyes of the nation." It is an appeal to all of us.
· Hilary Wainwright is editor of Red Pepper.