REPORTER: Elizabeth Tadic
Every day at noon, Mordechai Vanunu takes great pleasure in ringing the bells at St George's Anglican Cathedral in East Jerusalem. It's his way of thumbing his nose at the judges and the state of Israel, who put him behind bars for 18 years.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: So from here, from this place where I'm ringing the bell, you can see from the window this building here, this is the District Court of Jerusalem, the place who sentence me as a spy, traitor. So the ringing of the bell is a very good answer for the Israel justice who was very cruel, barbaric against me for 18 years.
YOSEF LAPID, ISRAELI JUSTICE MINISTER: He betrayed his country. He spied on his country, he didn't express any regret, he didn't repent and he's hell-bent to do as much harm as he can. So what we are doing is a very restricted, modest amount of surveillance about his doings.
For most Israelis, Vanunu is seen as a traitor and should never have been released. His crime has been compounded by his conversion to Christianity.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: I start questioning and criticising Judaism. I didn't accept a lot of what they teach, that the Jewish people are the only God-chosen people.
After serving his entire 18-year sentence, 11.5 of which was spent in solitary confinement, Vanunu was released last April under strict conditions, forbidding him to leave Israel or to speak to the foreign media.
MORDECHAI VANUNU:..and very cruel, barbaric treatment by Israel spy - Mossad, Shin Bet.
I'm speaking, expressing my views, my political views, my ideas. I believe we, the people have the right to speak and express without any fear. I'm a mirror for what they did.
Mordechai Vanunu was a nuclear technician at Dimona, Israel's secret installation from 1976 to 1985. He worked there at a time when Israel was adamant it would not be the first to develop nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Vanunu's crime had been to reveal Israel's secret nuclear weapons program at Dimona. His 1986 'Sunday Times' article made world headlines, as did his abduction in Rome by an Israeli secret agent, who reminded him of a Charlie's Angel from the '70s.
REPORTER: I think it was Farah Fawcett.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Farah Fawcett, yeah.
REPORTER: She looked like her?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Yes, she remind me of her.
He was drugged, kidnapped and shipped to Israel and a closed trial, where he was convicted of treason and espionage. At the time, the world suspected Israel had nuclear capabilities, but the full extent of that program was not known. Vanunu's revelations were explosive.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: So my conclusion was they are producing every year around 40kg plutonium, that is enough for 10 atomic bombs. My conclusion after nine years working there in the end of 1985, they have already about 200 atomic bombs. And more than that, in the last years, in the '80s, they started producing a new material called lithium 6. This material can only be used for one thing - to produce a hydrogen bomb. And that production raised alarm in my mind and decided I should come out and inform the world and let the world see this crazy production by Israel in secret.
REPORTER: Why do you think that Israel did not want the world to know about their nuclear program?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Israel do not want because United States and England and Europe and Australia too, are fighting Iraq and Arab who have suspected they have atomic bombs. And we, all the world, know that the only place we have atomic bomb is in Israel. And I by speaking make it very hard for United States and Australia, England, Europe, to fight the Arabs, because how can they go to Iraq and Iran and ignore Israel?
At a time when Iraq and Iran have come under pressure to reveal their weapons of mass destruction, Israel has not. Ignoring Israel's nuclear capabilities is a policy referred to as nuclear ambiguity, and it is the basis for a long-held understanding between Israel and the United States. Israel undertakes not to declare itself a nuclear state, nor test a nuclear device, and the United States promises to look the other way.
REPORTER: Do you think that they have more secrets hidden there?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Of course, they have a lot of nuclear secrets. I only work there nine years and they have another 18 years of production, development, they have many more advanced weapons production everywhere in Israel.
REPORTER: Do you ever look back and regret revealing Israel's secrets? Do you ever look back on your life?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: No never - the opposite. Year after year you saw the world change, the Cold War ended, the nuclear race ended and the world are trying to fight the proliferation of atomic bombs, so...the opposite. I am very proud and happy that I succeeded to reveal nuclear plan, to do that act of stopping the nuclear proliferation.
Vanunu maintains that he is not a traitor but simply making a contribution towards a nuclear-free world. He asks to be driven to the outskirts of Jerusalem to see Israel's security barrier. It's a trip he's not supposed to take without prior permission of the Israel authorities.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Even if I'm not allowed to be here, so what? I am not doing anything bad or crime. Those who built the wall, they say we are afraid from peace, we don't want peace, because they cannot make peace with such walls. Above all they should end, destroy their nuclear weapons. I'm here in East Jerusalem like the Palestinians under occupation. They can stop me any time, they can arrest me.
REPORTER: And what if they say, "No, sorry, you can never leave this country." What will you do?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: I will keep on waiting. They can say another year and they can wait another year and another year. I think sooner or later they should let me go because I proved to them this last year there is no risk from my being free and it's only causing damage. The name of security is not working anymore.
But Vanunu's glib tongue may talk him back into prison. Last week he was charged with 21 counts of speaking to the foreign media, but he remains defiant.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: So who is in prison now, me or the Israelis? I think I'm free.
Every day at noon, Mordechai Vanunu takes great pleasure in ringing the bells at St George's Anglican Cathedral in East Jerusalem. It's his way of thumbing his nose at the judges and the state of Israel, who put him behind bars for 18 years.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: So from here, from this place where I'm ringing the bell, you can see from the window this building here, this is the District Court of Jerusalem, the place who sentence me as a spy, traitor. So the ringing of the bell is a very good answer for the Israel justice who was very cruel, barbaric against me for 18 years.
YOSEF LAPID, ISRAELI JUSTICE MINISTER: He betrayed his country. He spied on his country, he didn't express any regret, he didn't repent and he's hell-bent to do as much harm as he can. So what we are doing is a very restricted, modest amount of surveillance about his doings.
For most Israelis, Vanunu is seen as a traitor and should never have been released. His crime has been compounded by his conversion to Christianity.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: I start questioning and criticising Judaism. I didn't accept a lot of what they teach, that the Jewish people are the only God-chosen people.
After serving his entire 18-year sentence, 11.5 of which was spent in solitary confinement, Vanunu was released last April under strict conditions, forbidding him to leave Israel or to speak to the foreign media.
MORDECHAI VANUNU:..and very cruel, barbaric treatment by Israel spy - Mossad, Shin Bet.
I'm speaking, expressing my views, my political views, my ideas. I believe we, the people have the right to speak and express without any fear. I'm a mirror for what they did.
Mordechai Vanunu was a nuclear technician at Dimona, Israel's secret installation from 1976 to 1985. He worked there at a time when Israel was adamant it would not be the first to develop nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Vanunu's crime had been to reveal Israel's secret nuclear weapons program at Dimona. His 1986 'Sunday Times' article made world headlines, as did his abduction in Rome by an Israeli secret agent, who reminded him of a Charlie's Angel from the '70s.
REPORTER: I think it was Farah Fawcett.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Farah Fawcett, yeah.
REPORTER: She looked like her?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Yes, she remind me of her.
He was drugged, kidnapped and shipped to Israel and a closed trial, where he was convicted of treason and espionage. At the time, the world suspected Israel had nuclear capabilities, but the full extent of that program was not known. Vanunu's revelations were explosive.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: So my conclusion was they are producing every year around 40kg plutonium, that is enough for 10 atomic bombs. My conclusion after nine years working there in the end of 1985, they have already about 200 atomic bombs. And more than that, in the last years, in the '80s, they started producing a new material called lithium 6. This material can only be used for one thing - to produce a hydrogen bomb. And that production raised alarm in my mind and decided I should come out and inform the world and let the world see this crazy production by Israel in secret.
REPORTER: Why do you think that Israel did not want the world to know about their nuclear program?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Israel do not want because United States and England and Europe and Australia too, are fighting Iraq and Arab who have suspected they have atomic bombs. And we, all the world, know that the only place we have atomic bomb is in Israel. And I by speaking make it very hard for United States and Australia, England, Europe, to fight the Arabs, because how can they go to Iraq and Iran and ignore Israel?
At a time when Iraq and Iran have come under pressure to reveal their weapons of mass destruction, Israel has not. Ignoring Israel's nuclear capabilities is a policy referred to as nuclear ambiguity, and it is the basis for a long-held understanding between Israel and the United States. Israel undertakes not to declare itself a nuclear state, nor test a nuclear device, and the United States promises to look the other way.
REPORTER: Do you think that they have more secrets hidden there?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Of course, they have a lot of nuclear secrets. I only work there nine years and they have another 18 years of production, development, they have many more advanced weapons production everywhere in Israel.
REPORTER: Do you ever look back and regret revealing Israel's secrets? Do you ever look back on your life?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: No never - the opposite. Year after year you saw the world change, the Cold War ended, the nuclear race ended and the world are trying to fight the proliferation of atomic bombs, so...the opposite. I am very proud and happy that I succeeded to reveal nuclear plan, to do that act of stopping the nuclear proliferation.
Vanunu maintains that he is not a traitor but simply making a contribution towards a nuclear-free world. He asks to be driven to the outskirts of Jerusalem to see Israel's security barrier. It's a trip he's not supposed to take without prior permission of the Israel authorities.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: Even if I'm not allowed to be here, so what? I am not doing anything bad or crime. Those who built the wall, they say we are afraid from peace, we don't want peace, because they cannot make peace with such walls. Above all they should end, destroy their nuclear weapons. I'm here in East Jerusalem like the Palestinians under occupation. They can stop me any time, they can arrest me.
REPORTER: And what if they say, "No, sorry, you can never leave this country." What will you do?
MORDECHAI VANUNU: I will keep on waiting. They can say another year and they can wait another year and another year. I think sooner or later they should let me go because I proved to them this last year there is no risk from my being free and it's only causing damage. The name of security is not working anymore.
But Vanunu's glib tongue may talk him back into prison. Last week he was charged with 21 counts of speaking to the foreign media, but he remains defiant.
MORDECHAI VANUNU: So who is in prison now, me or the Israelis? I think I'm free.