Israeli nuclear 'power' exposed
Mordechai Vanunu
Israel has enforced Vanunu's silence for 16 years

Olenka Frenkiel
By Olenka Frenkiel
Reporting from Israel for Correspondent
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Mordechai Vanunu, Israel's nuclear whistleblower, was jailed in 1986 for publishing photographs of Israel's nuclear bomb factory at Dimona. Olenka Frenkiel reveals the extent of Israel's nuclear gagging.

The Sunday Times
Revelations hit the press in October 1986
Vanunu has spent 17 years in jail, 11 of which were in a minute solitary confinement cell - and he has just had his appeal for parole denied.

He will stay in jail until 2004, when his term is expected to end.

Sunday Times journalist Peter Hounam heard rumours in 1986 that an Israeli whistleblower was offering proof of what the world had long suspected.

Vanunu was that whistleblower.

His revelations confirmed that Israel was building advanced nuclear weapons.

After the Sunday Times published this scoop, Vanunu was lured to Italy and kidnapped by Mossad agents and illegally smuggled back to Israel.

He was tried in secret and convicted of treason and spying.

Security chief exposed

In court, at his parole hearing, Avigdor Feldman, Vanunu's lawyer, argued that his client had no more secrets and should be freed.

But the prosecutor had a new argument: the imminent war with Iraq.

After the hearing Mr Feldman told Correspondent: "The prosecutor said that if Vanunu were released, the Americans would probably leave Iraq and go after Israel and Israel's nuclear weapons - which I found extremely ridiculous."

The real force blocking Vanunu's release is a man who was known only as "Y".

In 2001, "Y" was exposed as Yehiyel Horev and it is said that the only thing he fears is publicity.

Mr Horev is the head of Israel's most powerful intelligence service, dealing with nuclear and military secrets.

Yehiyel Horev
Yehiyel Horev unmasked, here, for the first time
His accountability has only been to the many prime ministers he has watched come and go in the 16 years he has built his power base.

He has been likened to the head of the FBI, J Edgar Hoover - an autocrat out of control.

Ronen Bergman, security correspondent for one of Israel's leading newspapers - Yediot Ahronoth - says: "Horev is a grave danger to Israeli democracy.

"He operates with no law, no real scrutiny and no monitoring by the Israeli parliament.

"Horev was afraid that veterans of the Israeli intelligence and the Israeli nuclear effort would try to maintain their footprint in the history of Israel and tell their story.

"He wanted to frighten them."

Acting with impunity

Israel never confirms or denies claims that it has nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The country positions itself outside international treaties, which would make it subject to inspection.

Uzi Even
Uzi Even - Dimona should be shut down
For 40 years, most Israelis have been content with this policy - known as "nuclear ambiguity".

But there are some in Israel who argue this policy has had its day.

They say the costs of such secrecy to Israeli democracy are too great.

Uzi Even, was a young scientist working, in the 60s, at Dimona - Israel's nuclear reactor - as did Vanunu.

Today, Mr Even says it should be shut down.

Forty-year-old reactors tend to have accidents and he believes that Dimona, which is beyond the reach of the Israeli parliament, needs to be brought into a system of accountability and public scrutiny.

Mr Even explained: "You should have an outside watchdog.

"The secrecy more or less created an extra- territorial area in Israel where standard procedures of safety monitoring are not implemented.

"So worker safety, environmental questions and industrial safety procedures, are not covered, and there are thousands of people working there."

Enforced silence

Nothing illustrates this better than the sensitive issue of Dimona's cancer victims.

In an Israeli documentary in 2002, Dimona workers said accidents had been routine.

They spoke of explosions, fires and liquid and toxic gas leaks that they had to clean, often without protection.

Dimona nuclear reactor
Accidents were 'routine' at Dimona
The authorities denied they had worked with radioactive materials.

They have refused to compensate them or their families for their years of loyal service.

Because of the strict secrecy rules they were even unable to fight for their rights.

When Correspondent approached one of the workers, who was dying of cancer, he refused to be interviewed - but with some regret.

Unaware he was being filmed, he said: "I wanted to talk to you but I have been silenced.

"They came from intelligence and told me not to talk.

"They said I would be like Vanunu."

Vanunu has another year in jail.

When his sentence is finished he hopes to emigrate to America.

But Mr Horev has clearly let it be known he never intends to let Vanunu leave Israel.

Mordechai Vanunu has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2003.
Click here to read the programme transcript
It was unfortunately necessary to postpone the billed programme "Israel's Secret Weapon" on Sunday night due entirely to the overrun of an unscheduled news bulletin about the Azores summit.

It is sometimes necessary to make last minute scheduling changes, and with events around the Iraq conflict so fluid at present, this is particularly the case.

The programme was transmitted at the first available opportunity and the BBC trailed and promoted the new schedule to direct audiences to the programme from Sunday night and through Monday.

There is no suggestion that any political pressure affected a scheduling decision by the BBC.
Vananu may be a traitor or a courageous activist for peace in the Middle East, but his treatment is inhumane and degrading and should not happen in a modern civilised world.
Alan Williams, UK

It highlights the double standard that exists in the world today. We have just fought a war with Iraq for possibly possessing WOMD that we are certain that Israel has. Israel is certainly not any more democratic than Iran is, for example, so democracy is not an excuse for this double standard.
Colin, Ireland

Excellent and revealing programme giving insight into the very worrying situation in Israel with its unacceptable nuclear policy. We are full of admiration for Mordechai Vanununu and horrified at the treatment he has received from officials in this so-called democracy.
Rosalind Urion, UK

To compare Israel to Iraq is to draw fallacious similarities between the two countries

Edward & Florence Brill

To compare Israel to Iraq is to draw fallacious similarities between the two countries. One is a democracy fighting to protect its citizens from the scourge of terrorism, the other is a terrorist dictatorship. This is not the same thing, and to suggest that it is reeks of anti-Semitism.
Edward & Florence Brill

Your programme, "Israel's Secret Weapon", was a brilliant documentary that lifted the lid on the violent secrecy that has surrounded Israel's nuclear capability which has hitherto remained outside the bounds of international law and inspection. I want to say a big thankyou to the producers of the programme for their courage, honesty and integrity.
Miss D Holden

Why is it that one can not criticise Israel without being labelled anti-Semitic? When people criticise Pakistan or any other Muslim nation they are not charged with being Islam phobic - One can dislike the actions of Israel without being anti-Semitic.
Noah, UK

I have no strong objections to Israel having these weapons but, to consider themselves as part of Western democracies, they should be honest about them and, at least, let inspectors in to check safety factors.
Jill Holloway, England

Britain has nuclear weapons, but does anyone from abroad inspect them

Rona Hart
The comments here are almost as illuminating as the film. The argument in defence of Israel's secret nuclear weapons program appears to amount to "Israel is a democracy". If I lived there then I might consider the sinister and authoritarian cover-ups of accidents and illnesses surrounding Dimona, not to mention the nauseating scenes of people poisoned by the Israeli army using unidentified poison gas, as grounds to seriously re-consider the political party I would want to represent me.
Sean, Australia