An Anglican priest from Australia implied at a press conference in East Jerusalem Sunday that Israeli agents may have kidnapped Mordechai Vanunu, a onetime technician at the Dimona nuclear facility who told the press that Israel has a stockpile of nuclear bombs.
The Rev. John McKnight, who said he converted Vanunu to the Christian faith shortly after the Israeli arrived in Australia last May, made no specific charge. He told reporters at the American Colony Hostel that he had completely reliable information that Vanuu had been brought to Israel from London “not of his free will” and is presently in prison somewhere in Israel. Israeli officials would neither confirm nor deny this allegation.
DECLINES TO IDENTIFY SOURCE OF INFORMATION
McKnight declined to identify the source of his information. He said he had no reply to his request to the Prime Minister’s Office that he be allowed to meet with Vanunu where he is allegedly being held in order to offer him personal and legal aid from the Anglican Church in Australia.
McKnight told Israel Radio earlier that he had last spoken to Vanunu in London on September 30, the day before he disappeared. Vanunu gave details to a British newspaper of a purported Israeli nuclear arsenal at Dimona where he had been employed for several years in a technical capacity. He said he acted out of ideological reasons.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
