Israel: Palming Off A Message

Israeli police did not want Mordechai Vanunu talking to the press last week before his pretrial hearing in Jerusalem on charges of espionage and treason. Vanunu, a technician who allegedly sold an account of his country’s atomic- weapons program to the London Sunday Times while in Britain, vanished last September, only to reappear in custody in Israel six weeks later.

But as reporters swarmed around the police van that brought him to the courtroom, the prisoner pressed his left palm against a window. Written on it in telegraphic style was a message that read: M. Vanunu was hijacked in Rome on Sept. 30 at 9:00 p.m., after arriving there on British Airways Flight 504 from London. That jibed with rumors that Vanunu had been abducted by Israeli intelligence agents and brought back to Jerusalem.

Authorities tried to censor news of the message, but to no avail. The question remained: Was Vanunu’s allegation true? Those seeking an answer included Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, who ordered an inquiry into whether Israel had seized Vanunu in Rome.