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"He left Dimona in October 1985 and the design of today's Israeli nuclear weapons will have been considerably changed since then…Modern nuclear weapons bear little relationship to those of the mid-1980."[1]
A total of 1,200 pages of transcript of that closed door trial have been released.
Vanunu told the court: "I wanted to confirm what everyone knew, I didn't want Israel to go on denying that it had nuclear weapons, and Shimon Peres to go on lying to (then US president) Ronald Reagan, saying that we didn't have a nuclear arsenal. I also wanted controls to be placed on these weapons. [2]
The transcript also revealed that Peres, the then prime minister, told the court that Vanunu's revelations "caused serious damage to Israel and their publication led certain Arab countries to harden their stance, to our disadvantage." [Ibid]
The prefabricating Peres stated in a radio interview, "It is not up to Vanunu, or the judiciary, or the media, but the competent bodies to decide on the nature of our deterrent forces. A certain amount of secrecy must be maintained in some fields. The suspicion and fog surrounding this question are constructive, because they strengthen our deterrent."
Peres also reiterated the fiction that Israel would never be the first in the Middle East to introduce nuclear weapons into the region.
The compulsive Shimon could not resist adding that Israel "entered the atomic age not to arrive at Hiroshima but to arrive at Oslo." [Ibid]
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
Peres was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for playing a part in achieving the Oslo Declaration of Principles. Ever since, Peres has been most instrumental in helping to destroy the agreement.
On March 1, 2009, Vanunu wrote in his letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee:
I cannot be part of a list of laureates that include Simon Peres. Peres established and developed the atomic weapon program in Dimona in Israel…Peres was the man who ordered [my] kidnapping…he continues to oppose my freedom and release…WHAT I WANT IS FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM….FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM I NEED NOW.
During one of my interviews with Vanunu in June 2005, on top of Papa Andréa's Restaurant in the Old City, where they serve the fish with head and skeleton intact and fries on the side, I asked Vanunu why wasn't he seizing the opportunity that his own web site offered him and write his own story. At the time he was attending many political meetings, church activities and meeting many internationals. I asked him why wasn't he busy writing his own book, especially as others had written books about him but never paid him for his story. Neither did the London Sunday Times, for Vanunu was kidnapped before he ever signed a contract with them.
Vanunu replied that Israel had forbidden him to publish anything. I replied, "So what? You have been forbidden to speak to foreigners and you have done that since April 21, 2004. What difference does it make if you write down the same words that you have been saying out loud? So what if you post those words on your website and send it off to editors of newspapers and magazines? You would be shining a light on Israel's injustices and also the insanity of demanding you not speak your mind. It is your RIGHT!"
Vanunu shrugged and went silent.
It was not the first time, nor the last, that I asked a question and received the same response. I told Vanunu that I would then tell his story to America, because I believed that when USA Christians learned the truth about him, everything would change for Vanunu and Palestine. Vanunu looked at me like I was crazy, smiled and said good luck. I told him I didn't need luck, I needed a miracle and good thing was that I believed in them too, for at the time, I was clueless as to what an impossible mission I had taken-to try to raise awareness about Israeli injustice...
One of the very first questions I ever asked Vanunu was if he chose the name John Crossman because of St. John of the Cross, the Spanish mystic poet and Carmelite brother who was an ardent disciple of Theresa of Avilla’s reforms.
