Mordechai spent 18 years behind bars (11 in solitary confinement) for exposing Israel’s illegal nuclear weapons programme back in 1986. Since his release in 2004 he has been rearrested a number of times on petty charges, has remained under close surveillance and is banned from travel. Despite all this Vanunu has remained defiant and insists that: "I am neither a traitor nor a spy, I only wanted the world to know what was happening."

The drum of war yet again beats to the sound of propaganda. A proxy war is on the cards. Pulled from the sleeve of failed magicians, the illusion of blame lies at the foot of fabrication, for the fiasco that is Iraq is the fault of a new but old adversary.

Worrying plans in place for low-yield nuclear strikes on Iranian soil come straight from the horse’s mouth - Washington’s self proclaimed evil genus Dick (head) Cheney - while the Israeli government wage a media war to steer public acceptance towards confrontation with a first strike nuclear policy. The justification given for such an apocalyptic crusade is Iranian nuclear ambition - rhetoric disturbingly familiar to that of Iraq’s falsified WMD capability (45 minutes?).

America is becoming more unstuck in Iraq and risks losing its newly acquired strategic prize. The wounded beast at its most dangerous contemplates throwing its last dice with catastrophic worldwide ramifications.

This war of hypocrisy lies not only in America’s threat of nuclear annihilation but with a rouge state (Israel) that has amassed one of the largest stockpiles of nuclear warheads (nuclear weapons are illegal in the Middle East under international law) in the world and her war with one man of great courage and conscience.

As I write this article Mordechai Vanunu faces an unjustified second term in an Israeli prison, his crime - talking to foreigners. The Israeli government says he holds state secrets and is therefore a danger to national security. What words could merit such forced silence?

In September 1986 Vanunu, a technical assistant at the Dimona nuclear plant went to London with two rolls of film. The photos exposed Israel’s clandestine nuclear bomb factory. After checking their authenticity The Sunday Times were to publish Vanunu's findings. By then Vanunu would be safely out of the picture.

While in London Vanunu met and fell for an American tourist know only as ‘Cindy’, and she convinced him to come to Rome with her on holiday. Flattered by her interest and smitten by her advances, Vanunu looked forward to his romantic break away. Alas he could only dream, for Rome was to be the venue of a magnificent violation of international law. 

The honey trap that was ‘Cindy’ led him to awaiting Mossad agents, who proceeded to beat, drug and finally kidnap Vanunu, smuggling him out of Italy by freighter boat. He later arrived in Israel to be sentenced by secret trial to 18 years in prison for treason and espionage (how ironic). Vanunu was to spend 12 of those 18 years in solitary confinement. In April 2004 he was finally released, free at last or so he thought.

Since his release Vanunu has been subjected to severe restrictions of movement, banned from leaving the country and forbidden to speak to any foreigners. Vanunu, far from free, was to be the focus of what Amnesty International called “cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment… prohibited by international law." Any information he holds is surly outdated as Israel’s mammoth nuclear capabilities are facts of common knowledge.

I was to meet Vanunu shortly after his release from prison at the St Georges Cathedral in Jerusalem where he was renting a room. A gentle, short, hansom man of golden complexion, Vanunu was remarkably fit and articulate for a man held mainly in solitary confinement. Smartly dressed in black trousers and light blue shirt, his quiet resolve gave no impression of 18 years hidden away under the weight of Israeli suppression.

He had just got back from his morning swim at the local hotel pool. Throughout our talk he showed little sign of anger, just the mere frustration of a man denied liberty. He dreamed vocally about his future freedom and quest to find a wife. He wished only to be able to leave Israel and start a new life which had already been robbed of its best years.

There was something quite wonderful about this man, who under immense pressure still manages to be defiant, defending his actions - repeating that they imprisoned him but not his mind. No matter what they did, what they called him, what he saw, no matter how many years he would spend inside, he would always be free in spirit.. They would never break Mordechai Vanunu. I came away from our meeting uplifted by the sheer magnificence of human spirit. The tremendous encouragement of defiant preservation.

Vanunu has deservedly won many awards, named the rector of Glasgow University and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize no fewer than 16 times. His applause and accolades come from all corners of the globe. More than just a man, Mordechai Vanunu represents all tenets of freedom, justice and peace.

Shortly after our meeting he was arrested on suspicion of leaking national secrets. It was to be the start of a pattern of arrests that lead to him being sentenced in April 2007 six months imprisonment (he has appealed and currently awaits the court’s verdict). I would ask everyone reading this article to visit his website and do what you can to support the campaign to free Modeachai Vanunu.

In the age of endless war and nuclear confrontation, his motives and actions are as relevant as they ever were. He may be physically unable to transcend the metal boundaries that cut him off from the world outside, but a man of such human beauty will always be free - free to continue to dream.

I am in prison but they cannot chain my mind… I am free to keep my belief in my action against all psychological brainwash until I can fly from this state prison. Until my dead body will rise again from this tomb like an agent who came back from the cold to serve the world in the war against nuclear Holocaust, nuclear proliferation, against nuclear secrets...to be free to live to be alive...

-From the poem Buried Alive by Mordechai Vanunu

For more information and to help with his campaign visit

www.vanunu.org

www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/