Oslo – Norway offered on Friday to let Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu live in Oslo with his Norwegian wife, but she said it was unclear if Israel will allow him to travel.
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Vanunu, 62, married theology professor Kristin Joachimsen in Jerusalem in 2015 after first meeting in Israel almost a decade earlier.
She applied for him to be allowed to come to Norway under rules for family reunification and a spokesman for the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration said permission had been granted.
Vanunu was jailed and served an 18-year sentence after discussing his work at Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor with a British newspaper in 1986. The interview led experts to conclude the facility had produced fissile material for as many as 200 atomic warheads.
After his release from jail in 2004, Israeli defense authorities imposed strict conditions on Vanunu, including from traveling abroad, alleging he was a security risk and might have new secrets to tell.
Joachimsen said the Israeli restrictions were up for review in November and expressed hopes they would be lifted. “We have waited long enough for the case to be solved on Israel’s side,” she said.
The restrictions, upheld by Israel’s Supreme Court, have been condemned by international human rights groups.
This low life “left” Judaism and put millions of Israeli in danger, he should be in dark room underground for rest of his life.
I am pleased to see he has served his time.
Why should he travel to Norway? Perhaps when Jonathan Pollard can move here.
When Israel was pressuring the USA to release Pollard, I sent a letter to a Ms. Darshana-Leitner, an Attorney in Israel, who spearheaded that movement. I asked her how she could take that position, while at the same time remaining silent concerning Vanunu; I pointed out that Vanunu already served his prison sentence, including about a third of the time in solitary confinement. Both cases had similarities; hence, shouldn’t she have had an identical position, regarding Vanunu? How can a person be kept a prisoner in their own country, after they’ve been released, and are not on parole? Vanunu has renounced his Israeli citizenship, and should be free to leave. The Israeli government’s claims that he has more atomic secrets to sell, is no different than the absurd position of the CIA, and Defense Dept., which claim that Pollard also has more national security secrets to expose.