By: Zahra Khadraj
https://www.maan-ctr.org/magazine/article/3350/
Mordechai Vanunu, the Jewish nuclear technician and the revealer of the nuclear secrets of the State of Israel
Exclusive to Environment and Development Horizons (Afaq magazine):
Mordechai Vanunu reveals the most dangerous secret
Vanunu's reveal in 1986 about Israel's nuclear program confirmed suspicions about its possession of a nuclear arsenal. It turned out that the Israeli nuclear program is more advanced than previously thought.
Vanunu worked as a technician for nine years at the Dimona Nuclear Research Center in the Negev desert. At one point he found himself a partner in preparing for a nuclear disaster. He was full of remorse, so he decided to resign, and before leaving his job, he smuggled a camera into the reactor (although cameras were forbidden). He succeeded at photographing parts of the reactor facilities, and part of the work which is carried out at the Dimona reactor and the equipment used, including raw materials for the extraction of radioactive materials for military production and laboratory models of thermonuclear devices.
He traveled took the pictures and headed to London to The Sunday Times newspaper in particular. He handed in the top-secret information he had along with the pictures. This caused a huge uproar in the world, because it proved that Israel is a nuclear power equivalent to that of France, China, and Britain. He also gave information about the reactor that it can make and store hundreds of nuclear bombs. It comes all along the main building with a dome above the reactor core, along the chimney of gas emissions.
There is a series of buildings known as the Machon Institute. One of these buildings (Institute No. 2) extends to six underground floors. It contains production halls for fissile materials, including units for extracting the element plutonium that is used in the manufacture of nuclear bombs. This proved that Israel lied about its true nuclear power!
Vanunu was then lured to Rome, the Capital of Italy. He was kidnapped by the Israeli intelligence community, "Mossad."
He was drugged and abducted. He was secretly transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, of which he spent 10 years in solitary confinement.
What is the main environmental risk of the reactor in the region?
The presence of the Dimona reactor in a small geographical area such as Palestine (27,027 km2) is a time bomb that may explode and destroy the entire region.
Multiple catastrophic risks revolve around the reactor, each of which can be destructive on its own. On top of all is the radioactive waste resulting from the operation of the reactor, which makes it essential for the surrounding countries -the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and Jordan-to work against the existence of the reactor.
In a press investigation entitled "Has the West Bank turned into a landfill for Israeli nuclear waste?" Published in 2008 in Afaq Environmental Magazine, researchers Thaer Faqusa and George Kurzom state that:
“Some strong evidence indicates the presence of several sites believed to contain “nuclear or chemical dumps” in some areas surrounding the villages and towns of Hebron Governorate, such as the Bani Naim desert dump, in which the Bedouins of the area confirmed that the Israelis closed one of its large caves with cement after they buried suspicious materials in. Then they painted the cement with the same color as the rock then they tied them with iron screwlike rods.
As a result of the establishment of these " dumps ", cases of cancer and several disorders among the residents of the area have worsened, according to Dr. Mahmoud Saadeh, an internist who oversaw the diagnosis and treatment of many cancer cases in the villages of south Hebron.
This came equivalent to what was published in an investigation of Channel 10 (the Israeli TV channel) in 2015 entitled "Discovery of Israel's Secret Nuclear Project”, about seven years after the publication of the investigation of Afaq environmental Magazine.
In the investigation prepared by Kurzom and Faqusa, it was reported that (Abdul Karim Shreiteh), head of the health department in Yatta municipality, indicated that Arab Al-Saray’aa, who live near the town of Yatta, contacted the municipality and reported that the Israeli army brought closed trucks, bulldozers, and winches, then closed the area and prevented the Bedouins residing in it. From moving for more than ten hours, and after they left, it was found that there were traces of huge pits in which suspicious materials were buried, with wires coming out on the surface of the ground, without any official Palestinian party coming to examine the area.
In a report by the Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK, it was stated that the atomic dust emitted from the Dimona reactor is a real environmental and biological danger, and many cases of cancer among Palestinians were detected in the areas surrounding the reactor such as Hebron, in addition to the birth of children without hands or with defects in the face or body. Also, many men in the region suffer from significant hair loss.
A report by a university study in Israel published in 2004 confirmed the existence of radioactivity recorded in the aquifers in southern Palestine, which are connected to the aquifer of the Gaza Strip. In another report, Al Dustour, a Jordanian newspaper referred to the same study and added that this radioactivity was caused by the intrusion of heavy radioactive water into the groundwater.
Varying degrees of radioactivity has been recorded in the Negev Desert and Wadi Araba along the border with Jordan.
In Conclusion: There is enough evidence for the countries of the region to stand firmly in the face of the occupying state and to stir up the opinion of the Arab and international public. There is an urgent need to organize local and international campaigns to publicize what is happening before the situation worsens when regret won’t make us any good.
Translated by: Rasha Abu Dayyeh
