Abstract
Eighteen years ago, Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli scientist working at Dimona nuclear facility, revealed that Israel had an atomic bomb project, a secret that had clouded US—Israeli relations since the days of Kennedy and Ben Gurion, and might have involved collusion between the countries. Vanunu was kidnapped in Italy, returned to Israel and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment, nearly 12 of which he spent in solitary confinement. In April this year, James Thackara went to Israel for Index on Censorship to greet Vanunu on his release from Ashkelon Prison. Ursula Owen interviewed Thackara on his return.James Thackara has had a long involvement in nuclear issues and the Vanunu case, and is the author of America's Children (Chatto & Windus, 1984), a novel dealing with the Manhattan Project and the fate of Robert Oppenheimer