Norway to host Israel's nuclear whistle-blower

Mordechai Vanunu Norwegian wife announced that Oslo has agreed to receive the former nuclear expert who revealed secrets related to Israel’s nuclear program.

Christine Joachimsen told TV2 channel on Saturday night that “we have applied for family reunification because it enables a couple and their family to live together.”

She further explained saying that “I know that there are some circles that are not happy with it, but family values have won over all other matters.”

However, Joachimsen does not know when her husband will be allowed to join her in Norway.

“The ministry forwarded the decision to us last week and we treated it in a normal way. We approved of the family reunification demand” said Karl Erik Siuholt, head of the Norwegian Immigration Agency – the independent commission which is the only decision maker in these cases.

On 10 July, a court in Jerusalem sentenced Vanunu to two months’ probation for violating the terms of his release four years ago.

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The 62-year-old former nuclear scientist was jailed in 1986 for revealing the operations that had been carried out at Dimona nuclear reactor to British newspaper Sunday Times. He spent more than ten years of his detention in solitary confinement.

Immediately after his release in 2004, Vanunu was subject to a series of restrictions. He was prevented from traveling, contacting foreigners and speaking to the media. However, he was imprisoned twice for violating these directives.

In January, Vanunu was convicted for meeting with US citizens in Jerusalem in 2013 without permission, while he was acquitted of two charges. One of these was related to a television interview in 2015 with Channel Two of the Israeli television.

It is noteworthy that Vanunu stressed in this interview that he was not a spy of any country that was against Israel and accused the local intelligence services of plotting against him.

In his decision on Monday, Judge Yaron Mentkavić pointed out that the Supreme Court had since “eased” the ban to allow Vanunu to speak to foreigners.

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Mentkavić sent Vanunu to two months’ probation in addition to 120 hours of community service.

During his conviction hearing earlier this year, Vanunu told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that he was confident he would not return to prison.

In the last few years, Vanunu had requested to leave the country to hold meetings in order to cancel his Israeli citizenship. However, the Israeli authorities rejected all his requests.

While he was in London, Israel had used a Mossad female agent whom it named Sydney as a bait to persuade him to travel to Rome, where the Mossad agents kidnapped him and transported him to Israel, apparently by ship.

It is worth mentioning that Mordechai Vanunu is a Moroccan Jew who was born in 1954. His family came to Israel in 1963. In 1971, Vanunu became an Israeli army specialist in de-mining, but he had aspired to join the Israeli air force.

After concluding his military service, Vanunu joined Negev Nuclear Research Centre as a trainee and ended up at the Machon 2 underground facility, which he says was established to produce plutonium, lithium deuteride and beryllium, which are used to make nuclear bombs.

Israel is the only undeclared nuclear power in the Middle East as it refuses to confirm or deny its possession of nuclear weapons. It also refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and rejects any international monitoring of Negev Nuclear Research Centre in the Negev desert in the south of Israel.