By Charles Brammall
Whilst visiting Australia, now 72 year old, Marakesh-born Israeli Mordecai Vanunu, known also as John Crossman, began attending a church in Sydney’s Inner City. In July 1986 he became a Christian, and joined the Anglican Church. Venunu moved into an apartment owned by the church and found work driving a taxi owned by a parishioner.
Mordecai is an Israeli former nuclear technician and peace activist, who citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel’s nuclear weapons program to the British pressin 1986.
By all accounts it was an ordinary night at church, even by Kings Cross standards, when a young backpacker with the unforgettable name of Mordechai Vanunu stepped into the Foyer of St John’s, Darlinghurst in East Sydney.
The Jew with halting English struck up a conversation with student minister (and boxing champ) David Smith. (David’s brother is EMU’s and SMBC’s Rob Smith, and his dad was the brilliant and delightfully eccentric Theology academic Bruce Smith). At that time David was a student at Moore College. Vanunu accepted an invitation to join a Bible study.
Like so many before him, Vanunu had walked through the door of St John’s looking for relief from a burdensome life. But the former nuclear engineer came seeking answers to a question that was plaguing his dreams, a question hidden in rolls of film at the bottom of his backpack.
As the weeks went by, the church played host to a chain of events that would become both Vanunu’s salvation and his downfall. After long chats with Smith about the meaning of life, he converted from Judaism to Christianity and was baptised. He handed in the rolls of film to be developed to a nearby King’s Cross pharmacy.
Days later he met a Columbian journalist in the church grounds, who seemed interested in the pics. That same journalist would sell those photos to the British press. And suddenly the world was exposed to Dimona, a secret nuclear facility in Israel’s Negev desert, of which Vanunu was a former employee.
The truth was out: the Middle East’s staunch ally of the US, the Israeli state, DID have nuclear weapons, and the whistleblower to prove it. A short time later in Sep ‘86 Vanunu was in London, trying to disappear. He befriended an American “beautician” called “Cindy”. She was working undercover for the Israeli secret police, their intelligence agency Mossad- think Ziva in NCIS. (Cindy [Cheryl Hanin], is still alive and well, married, and luxuriating in distinct prosperity in Alaqua, Florida.)
Cindy lured him from England to Rome, and invited him to her apartment. Here he was knocked out by Mossad muscle, chained to the floor, and injected with a sedative. He had been drugged and kidnapped by Israeli authorities.
He was secretly transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors. Mordecai was sentenced for treason, espionage and betrayal of State secrets in a closed court, and spent the next 18 years in prison. Almost 12 of these were in solitary (the so-called “Dark and Dumb Cell”- “dumb” as in mute, as this is what it makes one become. No such restriction is mentioned in Israel’s penal code, nor imposed by his verdict.
Fast-forward to April 2004 and the Conscience with the unforgettable name prepared to leave Shikma prison in Ashkelon, south of Tel Aviv, for the first time in almost two decades. Hundreds gathered to catch a glimpse of the prisoner dubbed “Israel’s most hated man”.
Airwaves were chockers with broadcasters laying bets on who would be their country’s next Jack Ruby (Lee Harvey Oswald’s killer). Vanunu, then 50, greying, lean and well dressed, was anticipating a peaceful and quiet departure from prison. But the officers had failed to give any warning of the explosive scene that greeted him as he exited:
There was a mob of international press and a crowd on the brink of a riot. Anti-nuclear activists jostled with Israelis screaming hatred at the traitor on the other side of the steal fence. Sunday Times journalist Peter Hounam who wrote the original story in 1986 was also in the crowd. When he saw Vanunu he wept uncontrollably.
Five weeks later Hounam himself was arrested by Israeli police and imprisoned for 24 hours. He told Reuters he was accused of ‘spying on nuclear secrets and aggravated espionage’. Hounam was in Israel filming a BBC documentary on the nuclear whistleblower, who is banned from speaking to the foreign media.
Back in Oz, Rev David Smith was Rector of Holy Trinity Dulwich Hill til 2020. He too made the journey to the Ashkelon prison gates. But he was not alone: a Foreign Correspondent crew had been surveilling him for days. He wore his clerical collar that day: “I was really was hoping Morde would notice me at the prison- his brother had told him I was going to be there”.
But his garb did not win him any points on the streets of Ashkelon. He was sworn at and spat on.
David had a family back in Australia, but his friend Mordecai’s mother, father and other 10 siblings had disowned him long before. He left gaol with only 2 of his brothers, Meir and Asher, by his side
There was a defiant, impromptu press conference where Vanunu responded to the speculation that he had more secrets to tell. Answering only to questions in English, he had to yell to make himself heard: “To all those who are calling me traitor, I am proud and happy to do what I did…
“… I suffered here for 18 years because I was a Christian”. Soon afterwards he was relocated to an apartment in Jaffa. But after the address was published in the media, he decided to live in St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem.
He is still there to this day, regularly receiving visitors and sympathisers, and giving interviews to foreign journos, repeatedly defying the conditions of his release. His message is twofold: Israel needs to deal with Palestine, and the Dimona plant should be opened for inspection.
In the hysteria outside the court he did not see his old friend in the clerical collar. But later that evening it all seemed worth it. The two men who had been corresponding regularly for two decades were able to talk, pray together and share the Lord’s Supper.
It was an end to many long, weary years for the prisoner who claims he was continually mistreated and dehumanised at the hands of the guards.
David Smith said: “I’m conscious… that there’s still so much churned up within him after 18 years, [but] he’s maintained his Christian faith. He’s still very much a man of prayer. He wears two crosses around his neck in case someone misses the first one…
“His faith is still very significant to him. As much as anything else it’s a badge of his identity. He hasn’t any more secrets to reveal, we all know that. I think he is hated more because of his conversion than he is because he told the world about the nuclear weapons.”
But for all Vanunu’s new-found freedom, the man who introduced him to Jesus is not optimistic: “Denial of your faith is denial of your citizenship. To survive he has to get out of Israel…
“… Most people are armed- I would hate to see what would happen to him in public. I can’t see him getting more than a couple of blocks without someone putting a knife into him.”
Several years ago Vanunu said he wants to visit Australia again to thank his friends at his former church, where a vigil is held every year in his honour. He is keen to marry, have children and live in the West.
So as a hot, dry summer hangs over the Holy Land, Israel’s most hated man remains locked inside St George’s Cathedral, too nervous to venture outside excepting rare exceptions. He has been refused a visa to leave the country. But as always, his supporters around the world are agitating the government to lift restrictions:
“He was really appreciating the little things,” said Smith, “like being able to get up when he felt like it and go to bed when he felt like it.” Because the youthful Moroccan backpacker with halting English who walked into St John’s all those years ago, is said to hold the world record for one of the longest times in solitary confinement.
In 2915 Mordecai married Norwegian theology professor Kristin Joachimsen. She told Norway’s TV2 that the couple requested family reunification after their wedding. Norway’s Directorate of Immigration have granted him permission to immigrate for reunion with his love. Kristin said: “Family values have prevailed”. It is not clear however, whether or when he would be allowed to relocate.
A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry could not say if Vanunu had made a new request to travel to Norway. But he said restrictions on the the leaker’s freedom of movement were “due to the danger that he posed” to the Jewish state:
“Israel will continue to review updates of the situation in order to determine appropriate restrictions in accordance with security dangers posed by Vanunu.” Joachimsen said she hoped he would be allowed to leave: “We have waited long enough for the case to be solved on Israel’s side”.
A Dimona employee from ‘76 til ‘85, Vanunu revealed overwhelming evidence of Israel’s nuclear program, including dozens of photographs, enabling nuclear experts to conclude that Israel had produced at least 100 nuclear warheads.
To this day Israel neither confirms nor denies its nuclear weapons capability. And they still refuse to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or to allow international surveillance of its Dimona plant in the southern Negev desert.
Prayer:
Dear Eternal Father,
You are the transparent God, Who reveals all that is hidden. You are of the heavenly Father of all believing prisoners, truth tellers, revealers of evil, and whistleblowers. Please give me, David Smith, Kristin and Mordecai an antennae for Your righteousness.
Our Gracious God and Loving, Freeing Father,
I know it’s not true that anyone who does good things, regardless of their reliance on Christ, is righteous. I know we can do no good without God. Please give me, David Smith, Kristin, Mordecai and all imprisoned and persecuted Christians, the obedience of Christ- His obedience which comes from the life given to Him by You.
Amen
Dear God,
I know we can’t have Christian ethics, without giving You Your worth. Nor can we give You what You are worth without having Christian ethics. The two belong together and can’t be separated. Please help Mordecai, Kristin, Dave Smith and me never to say: “I have Christian values” but not trust in You. If we don’t depend on You, our values won’t be Christian.
Amen
Our Father of Atonement,
You free us from the power of sin in our lives, and buy us back from our slavery to it. Please keep Mordecai, Kristin, Dave Smith and me safe in your keeping, Lord, so that we may never be ashamed, but have confidence in You, and before You. And please give us many righteous works to do in your name.
Amen
Correction, Vanunu was kidnapped in 1986.