MORDECHAI VANUNU AND THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

Early day motion 914, tabled 18 March 2003 by Llew Smith (Labour). Signed by 58 members.

That this House praises the moral courage of nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli citizen employed from 1976 to 1986 at the Israeli Dimona nuclear development complex in the Negev Desert, who in 1986 made public the fact that Israel was developing nuclear weapons, thus making himself de facto the first and the last nuclear weapons inspector to have visited Israel's nuclear weapons production site where at least 2000 nuclear warheads of mass destruction have been built in secret; recalls his brave comment 'I have sacrificed my freedom and risked my life in order to expose the danger of nuclear weapons which threatens the whole region'; agrees with the unique merits of his act of conscience which led to an 18 year sentence in Israeli Ashkelon prison, the first 11 years of which he spent in solitary confinement; further agrees with Israeli MP Issam Makhoul who told the Knesset on 2nd February 2000, 'It is not the messenger Vanunu who is the problem, rather the policy of all Israeli governments... which could take us all to heaven in a nuclear mushroom'; believes Mr Vanunu should be recognised as a man of principle and dedication to peace for his action, not as a criminal; condemns the Israeli Government for delaying the proceedings to release Mr Vanunu on parole; and therefore supports the call by a group of Norwegian professors in their nomination of Mr Vanunu to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Signatures by party: Labour 44, Liberal Democrat 7, Plaid Cymru 4, Labour/Co-operative 2, Conservative 1.