By Vivienne Porzsolt
In late September, I was one of 16 international activists from Britain, the US, Canada, Belgium and Australia who converged on Israel to draw international attention to the plight of Mordechai Vanunu, who has been in solitary confinement for revealing the existence of Israel's nuclear weapons industry.
Vanunu was a technician at Dimona, Israel's nuclear "research" installation. In 1986, he smuggled out photos showing the extent of weapons manufacture, and the story was published by the London Sunday Times.
Vanunu was drugged and abducted in Rome by Mossad agents, taken back to Israel, tried in secret and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment for treason.
Vanunu has been held in solitary confinement for 11 years. Amnesty International has declared this treatment to be torture.
Our vigil focused on Ashkelon Prison, south of Tel Aviv, where Vanunu has been incarcerated. Every morning for the week of the vigil, a group of us stood for several hours outside the prison with placards and leaflets. We even hung our banners on the outer fence.
We chanted slogans such as "Free Vanunu now", and "Enough is enough". In general, these activities were tolerated by the guards. However, on one morning when we spoke to Palestinians waiting to see their relatives at the prison, they were threatened with cancellation of their visit if they continued to talk with us.
These Palestinians asked us why we were not highlighting the hundreds of members of their families also locked up there.
We said that we supported the release of Palestinian political prisoners as well, but our focus was Israel's nuclear arms policy and the situation of Vanunu resulting from his opposition to it. Some Palestinian women then joined us with photos of their men.
We went each morning to Ashkelon. Later in the day we would go to various sites in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to picket sites such as the ministries of Defence and Justice, the Israeli Medical Association {which refuses to acknowledge that Vanunu's prolonged solitary confinement constitutes torture), the Knesset and the prime minister's residence.
One day was spent marching in Tel Aviv to all the embassies of the countries represented in our group.
A fine one-man play depicting Vanunu's story, Mr V, was on while we were in Tel Aviv. A performance was put on for us in English. The play is attracting considerable audiences, who engage in vigorous discussions following the show.
A highlight was the call by Bono, the lead singer for the rock band U2, for the release of Vanunu. The young audience was initially taken aback by the call, which was widely reported the following day. Then a good number applauded.
The fact that a group of people had come from all over the world brought home to Israelis the level of international attention to the fate of Vanunu and also, no doubt, contributed to the generally courteous treatment we got from the authorities.
The response of the media was more positive than we had expected. Our picket outside Ashkelon was reported for the first time on the Israeli government TV channel. Meir Vanunu was interviewed live for 10 minutes on the other commercial channel.
When we demonstrated at the Dimona nuclear plant, we were joined by just 47 Israelis. This demonstration of 65 was the largest anti-nuclear demonstration ever held in Israel!
The Zionist consensus is incredibly powerful, particularly around Vanunu and nuclear weapons. To question the need for such "security" is to risk expulsion from the Israeli tribe, and very few are willing to do this.
Yet our experience on the street suggests that things are changing. More Israelis are open to consideration of the facts.