’Israel’s’ Persecution of Vanunu a Relic of British Colonialism

Local Editor

After 18 years in prison, the man who exposed "Israel's" nuclear weapons program to the world, Mordechai Vanunu, remains restricted under obsolete principles contradicting the UN Charter on Human Rights, prominent whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg said.

Calling Vanunu a "preeminent prophet of the nuclear era," Ellsberg stressed that "Israel" must recognize, for its own good, what Vanunu did was right and come clean about the existence of its nuclear weapons program.

The "Israeli" government should also stop lying to its own people and the world and admit that they were the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East, he added.

Ellsberg, who exposed the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War to the American media in 1971 and was prosecuted and branded a "traitor" by some for his move, also talked about Vanunu's ordeal from the perspective of a whistleblower.

"I think it's essentially what they want to be a life-time punishment, in effect, for embarrassing them, actually, in a policy that really can't be defended in the nuclear era....He served 18 years in prison: 10 and a half in a very small cell of isolation - a 6 by 9 foot cell - what Amnesty called torture, essentially, for that long period."

He further added: "The idea that he's restricted after serving the full sentence - nothing off for good behavior or any pardon of any sort - after serving the full sentence of 18 the idea that he should be subject to further restrictions about who he can talk to, and whether he can leave, is actually a relic of the British colonial policies, when they ruled "Israel" entirely and they were just incorporated into "Israeli" law that's not regarded under human rights legislation anywhere else in the world, actually, as a fair thing to do."

"By the way, what Vanunu indicated was, is that their nuclear stockpile was far larger than even our American Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] had estimated. He's described these stories, saying that it was at least 100 weapons. People who'd guessed earlier, thought it was much lower."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team