Slight Lifting of Israel's Nuclear Secrecy
(from SGR Newsletter 22, February 2001)

John Moore reports on the first debate on Israels' nuclear policy in its Parliament, the Knesset

The Israeli government has never admitted possessing nuclear weapons; but, in 1986, Modechai Vanunu, a former technician at the secret nuclear complex at Dimona, revealed considerable detail about its nuclear weapons capability to the Sunday Times. In response, Mossad, the Israeli secret service, lured him from Britain to Italy where Israeli agents kidnapped him and took him to Israel to face trial for espionage. In March 1988, he was sentenced to 18 years solitary confinement. The transcripts of the trial were kept secret in the name of national security.

On February 2, 2000, the veil of secrecy surrounding Israel's nuclear capability was pulled back ever so slightly, with the first ever debate on its nuclear policy in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. The brief debate, which lasted less than an hour, was requested by an Arab member of the Knesset, Issam Makhoul.

Makhoul was only allowed to speak for ten minutes, during which many Knesset members heckled, walked out or were asked by the Speaker to leave the chamber. In his speech, Makhoul reminded the Knesset that foreign estimates put Israel's nuclear arsenal at 200-300 warheads. He urged that the whistle-blower or, as he called him, "messenger Vanunu" should now be released, having served nearly fourteen years of his sentence. Makhoul quoted from the 1955 manifesto of Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell which appealed "as human beings to human beings" to "remember your humanity" and eliminate nuclear weapons for good.

Replying for the government to the debate, Chaim Ramon repeated the familiar official formulation that "Israel would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East". The Knesset decided against having a wider debate by 61 votes to 16. The 16 voting in favour of a longer debate included Dalia Rabin-Philosof, daughter of assassinated Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin, and Uri Savir, former Director General of the Office of an earlier prime minister, Shimon Peres.

From its reporting of the debate and other signs, it seems that the Israeli media is increasingly willing to discuss and report on Israel's nuclear posture. In November 1999, the popular daily Yediot Ahronot published excerpts from over 1200 pages of transcripts of Vanunu's trial. These included testimony by Vanunu himself, concerning his motives for whistle-blowing, and by then Prime Minister Peres, who had ordered his abduction. In response to the Knesset debate, the respected daily Haaretz editorialised that "Israeli society is mature enough to open its nuclear 'black box' with all due caution and look inside. We can and must conduct a public debate on nuclear policy......."

Notes

1. The Knesset debate is discussed and Issam Makhoul's speech reproduced in the January/ February 2000 issue of Disarmament Diplomacy.
2. The Campaign to Free Vanunu holds a vigil every Saturday from 12 to 2pm outside the Israeli Embassy in Kensington High Street, at the junction with Kensington Court. Contact UK Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu and for a Nuclear-Free Middle East at 89 Borough High Street, London SE1 (Tel/Fax 0207 378 9324).

John Moore is a Lecturer in Mathematics at Leeds College of Technology and an SGR member.

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