AMW welcomes the release of Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu after serving almost 18 years in prison - nearly 12 of them in solitary confinement - for disclosing details of Israel's nuclear weapons production to the Sunday Times in 1986.
However we join Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Journalists and other groups in condemning the "grotesque and perverse" limitations on travel, association and expression imposed by Israel on Vanunu as contrary to international law and "violations of his fundamental rights" that "breach basic principles of due process".
Despite the information he leaked, it should be noted that the CIA reported Israel's possession of nuclear weapons as early as 1968, contrary to Israel's long-held claim that it will not be the first country to introduce such weapons into the Middle East. It is now estimated to have several hundred nuclear weapons, an arsenal larger than those of Britain, France, China, India and Pakistan.
In light of Vanunu's release, the absence of any WMD in Iraq, Libya's agreement to give up its WMD programmes and Iran's agreement to put its nuclear reactors under international supervision, we hope attention will be refocused and pressure brought to bare on the fact that Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East, it has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Profileration of Nuclear Weapons (though most Arab states have), it is in violation of binding UN Security Council resolutions 481, 487 and 687 regarding such weapons, and it came close to using them in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
As such, we urge our members and the public to get their MPs to sign the Early Day Motions on Vanunu and Israel's nuclear weapons.
The relevant EDMs are as follows:
EDM 1023: Vanunu and nuclear disarmament
http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=1023
EDM 1021: Invitation to Vanunu
http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=1021
EDM 1015: Mordechai Vanunu
http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=1015
Restrictions on Vanunu's freedom:
He will not be allowed to leave Israel for 12 months.
He will have to register his residence, and receive
permission of the authorities if he wishes to travel to another city.
He will be forbidden to contact foreigners either by phone
or in person.
It remains unclear whether his American adoptive parents, who last visited him at the prison on Monday, will be allowed to communicate at all with him when free.
He is forbidden to talk about his work at Dimona with
journalists, although he may discuss his kidnapping from Italy.
He may be near but is forbidden to enter any foreign
embassy, and may not approach any port of entry or international boundary.
Relevant links:
No New Restrictions on Nuclear Whistleblower
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/04/20/isrlpa8469.htm
No restrictions or conditions must be imposed on Mordechai Vanunu upon his release
http://web.amnesty.org/mav/index/ENGMDE150412004
Journalists demand that Israel lifts "grotesque and perverse" ban on freed whistle-blower
http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=2406&Language=EN
Verdict on Vanunu
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1196961,00.html
Vanunu: Israel's nuclear telltale
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3640613.stm