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The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court has sentenced nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu to six months in jail for violating the terms of his parole.

Vanunu, a former technician at Israel's nuclear plant near the southern town of Dimona, spent 18 years in prison for giving details of the country's atomic program to British newspaper "Sunday Times" in 1986.

Upon his release in 2004, Vanunu was banned from leaving the country and talking to foreigners without approval, because Israeli authorities claimed he could still divulge classified information.

Some two months ago, Vanunu was convicted of 14 parole violations including contacts with journalists and attempts to leave Israel proper to go to Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank. [...]

According to the verdict, "The [violated parole] order stemmed from the fact that the accused had hoarded in his memory classified information that has not been released, and the release of which could harm the security interests of Israel."

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Originally posted by Max Bialystock:
It doesn't make sense to me that because Israel is a "democracy" it should be immune from criticism.

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Israel should comply with the same demand being made of Iran, to cease its nuclear fuel-cycle and stop enriching uranium, Hans Blix, Chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC), told Ynetnews Thursday. [...]

In a report recently released by the WMDC, seen by Ynetnews, the Committee stated: "While Israel, feeling under threat from Iran and others, is not likely to discard its nuclear-weapon capability except as part of a peace settlement, it could help to reduce tension, as is now asked of Iran, by joining Iran and all other states in the region in a commitment to suspend and renounce any fuel-cycle activities," the report said.

"We assume Israel has 200 nuclear warheads. Stop the work in Dimona," Blix said.

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Emphasis added.

Vanunu was imprisoned for 18 years for the "crime" of revealing that Israel had nuclear weapons.

It's almost as silly as the U.S. government's delusional claim, for over 22 years after the Chinese revolution, that the Taiwanese regime of Chiang Ksi-Shek was the legitimate government of all of China.

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Originally posted by Michelle:
Has he ever tried to escape from Israel?

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Originally posted by Ken Burch:
Does anybody know why the Israeli government still even bothers pretending that nobody knows for sure if it has the bomb? What exactly do they think they'd lose if they just said "Yeah, we have it. Deal with it"?

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The UN security council has passed many resolutions on a 'Nuclear Free' middle east. If Israel was to admit they have them then international pressure would be increased on them to join the NonProliferation treaty and to get in line with the various resolutions that are used against Iran.