‘Proud’ Vanunu Urges U.N. To Check Israel’s Nukes

"Israel doesn’t need nuclear arms, especially now that all the Middle East is free from nuclear weapons. My message today to the world is: Open Dimona reactor for inspections," Vanunu told an impromptu news briefing as he walked free from Shikma prison in southern Israel where he spent 18 years of his life.

The one-time technician at the Dimona nuclear plant in the southern Negev desert was jailed was abducted by Israeli secret service agents in Italy, smuggled back to Israel and then jailed back in 1986 after leaking details of the plant to Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper.

‘Proud, Happy’

Far from showing contrition, defiant Vanunu said at the end of his jail term he was "proud and happy" of having lifted the lid on Israel’s nuclear capability, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"To all those who are calling me traitor, I am proud and happy that I did what I did," he said.

Vanunu refused to answer questions in Hebrew as he was flanked by several Israeli troops.

His ironically titled poem "I am your spy," which was composed in prison, bears eloquent testimony to his belief that he has been invested with a mission to save the region from nuclear catastrophe.

"I have no choice. I am a little guy, a citizen, an ordinary fellow, but I will do my duty. I have heard the voice of my conscience. And there’s nowhere to run," wrote Vanunu from his prison.

In a sharp contrast, a group of Israelis called for Vanunu’s death as he stepped out of the prison under heavy guard, while foreign admirers and his supporters released doves of peace into the air.

But the two camps are in agreement on one thing at least: the incredible determination of a man who has spent more than 11 years in solitary confinement at the start of his term.

His time behind bars has certainly left its mark. Now aged 50, he has put on weight and his hair has thinned to a few strands around the temples.

Insisting that he has "no more secrets" to reveal, Vanunu said he is ready to start a new life, hoping to travel to the U.S. and get married.

‘Cruel, Barbaric’

He lamented he was given "very cruel and barbaric treatment" by Israel’s security services.

Vanunu said Israel’s Mossad and the Shin Bet security services tried to rob him of his sanity by keeping him in solitary confinement for nearly 12 years.

"I said to the Shabak [security agency], the Mossad, you didn’t succeed to break me, you didn’t succeed to make me crazy."

Vanunu, who was disowned by his family for abandoning Judaism and converting to Protestantism in 1980s, said that he was victimized by Israel as a result of his conversion.

"I suffered here because I was a Christian …. Only because I was a Christian," he told reporters awaiting anxiously his release.

Vanunu now signs his letters with the initials J.C., which stand for his new Christian name John Crossman.

The completion of his sentence is unlikely to lead to a reunification with his father Shlomo, a former rabbi, and his mother.

Vanunu has been legally adopted by a couple from Minnesota, Nick and Mary Eoloff, who have traveled to Israel for his release.

"We believe that what he did was an act of civil disobedience and not a crime," Nick Eoloff told AFP.

His brother, Meir Vanunu, has also been supportive and voiced concern for his safety.

Vanunu settled in Israel as a boy when his devoutly Jewish family emigrated from Morocco in 1963.

After three years of national service, he signed up to work as a nuclear technician in Dimona.

Often working nightshifts at the plant, he also found time to study philosophy and geography at the nearby university of Beersheva where associates say he began his drift to the left, becoming increasingly active against Israel’s ill-fated 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

But his revolt against his background led him to cross what Israelis of all political persuasions regard as a red line.

Now Vanunu is not allowed to have a passport, use the Internet, approach ports and airports, and has been told not to talk to foreigners without permission.

Israel’s Growing Arsenal

While the U.S. is pressing Iran over its alleged nuclear arsenal and is accused of having misled and lied to the world over Iraq’s alleged WMDs, Israel’s nuclear arsenal has grown from an estimated 13 nuclear bombs in 1967 to 400 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, according to a report published by The Los Angles Times last October.

For reactor design and construction, Israel sought the assistance of France.

Nuclear cooperation between the two nations dates back as far as the early 1950’s, when construction began on France’s 40MWt heavy water reactor and a chemical reprocessing plant at Marcoule.

In the fall of 1956, France agreed to provide Israel with an 18 MWt research reactor.

On October 3, 1957, the two countries inked a revised agreement calling for France to build a 24 MWt reactor, known as Dimona, and, in protocols that were not committed to paper, a chemical reprocessing plant, according to the LA Times.

In early 1968, the CIA issued a report concluding that Israel had successfully started production of nuclear weapons. (Click here to read the history of Israel’s nuclear arsenal.)

The Washington Post also revealed last October that Israel has succeeded in modifying U.S.-made cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to be launched from submarines.

U.S. intelligence agencies routinely omit Israel from semiannual reports to Congress identifying countries developing weapons of mass destruction to protect the country from any economic or military sanctions.