***Click here to read Daniel Ellsberg's statement about Mordechai Vanunu.***

"I have sacrificed my freedom and risked my life in order to expose the danger of nuclear weapons which threatens this whole region. I acted on behalf of all citizens and all of humanity."

What are the qualifying factors that make a hero? The answer is perhaps relative. But doesn't surrendering one's liberty and peace of mind to a prison cell so that the truth might be revealed distinguish an individual as a hero? Mordechai Vanunu is a man with a conscience. A conscience that would not permit the secret developments in an Israeli nuclear power plant to continue. Vanunu worked at Dimona from 1976 to 1985 as a technician and learned about Israel's secret production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. It was in 1985 that Vanunu believed it was his responsibility to inform the citizens of Israel as well as the rest of the world that nuclear weapons were being built and stored in Israel. He believed that Israelis deserved to know this information, especially in light of the tensions surrounding Middle East weaponry.

On October 5, 1986, the London Sunday Times, a prominent newspaper, headlined, "Revealed: The Secrets of Israel's Nuclear Arsenal," based on interviews with Vanunu. However, Vanunu never saw the paper because five days prior to the release of the story he was lured to Rome and kidnapped there by Israeli secret agents. Vanunu was brought back to Israel where he was secretly tried and convicted of treason and espionage. He was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. So far he has served over ten years in solitary confinement.

Vanunu sacrificed his freedom for a cause he considered absolutely necessary for the integrity of both his own life and the life of his country. He is limited to seeing his immediate family, his lawyer, and an Anglican clergyman. To see few people, breathe the air within the same four walls day in and day out, and to know of the world that exists beyond the constraints of the prison cell are sacrifices that many people wouldn't choose to make. Because Mordechai Vanunu did, he is a hero.

Vanunu did what a respectable citizen paying allegiance to his fellow countrymen should do. He is a man who stands before us all as an example of political and global responsibility. In his six foot by nine foot cell, in the quietness of the world in which he now lives, Vanunu is a man of reverence.

Vanunu remains a prisoner for the cause he has chosen. Surely this man is capable of much more; certainly his courage and sense of justice reveal that his potential is limitless, and thus to see his years passing in the quiet of a prison cell engenders frustration to all who celebrate his actions. But his stature is in no way reduced. He remains a servant to both his countrymen and all who share life on this planet. His voice has not been silenced.