Newspaper Bergens Tidende reported Wednesday that Vanunu's application for asylum in Norway had in fact been approved by the country's immigration agency UDI (Utlendingsdirektoratet) back in 2004.
UDI was overruled, however, by Norway's center-right government at the time. Political considerations, not least Norway's efforts to remain on good terms with Israel and the US, were more important than Vanunu's human rights, critics now charge.
"This puts Norway in a bad light," says Vanunu himself. He told Aftenposten.no Wednesday morning that he was disappointed but not surprised to learn that political motives were in fact behind the rejection of his asylum application three years ago.
UDI officials, who are supposed to have responsibility for making asylum decisions without political interference, had determined that Vanunu qualified for asylum. The nuclear physicist had spent 17 years in prison in Israel, 11 of them in isolation, after revealing to the Sunday Times of London that Israel had an atomic weapons program.
He had been kidnapped while in Rome by the Israeli intelligence unit Mossad, after revealing the atomic program in 1986, and forced back to Israel where he was convicted after a secret trial.
He was released from prison in 2004 but his freedom was severely restricted. He then sought asylum in Norway, where immigration authorities determined that his application should be granted.
They were overruled, however, by the center-right Norwegian government at the time, which was led by Kjell Magne Bondevik of the Christian Democrats. Bondevik himself portrays himself as a champion of human rights and now runs a peace institute in Oslo. But Bondevik's party has long been an enthusiastic supporter of Israel, and its interests apparently took precedence over Vanunu's.
The minister then in charge of immigration issues, Erna Solberg of the Conservatives, announced in 2005 that Vanunu's asylum was turned down because he filed it while still residing in Israel. Critics blasted that as an excuse at the time, and now, even Solberg herself concedes political motivations were behind the rejection.
Even though Solberg has claimed in a variety of other cases that politicians shouldn't interfere in bureaucratic decisions, she now defends her interference and rejection of UDI's ruling. She suggested on Wednesday that granting asylum to Vanunu would have offended Israeli authorities.
"We discussed the matter within the government (cabinet)," Solberg told Bergens Tidende. "We concluded that bringing Vanunu out of Israel would have amounted to an active move against Israel. That would have been wrong, in relation to the foreign policy processes in which we are engaged in the Middle East."
Calls for reevaluation
Reaction was swift from members of political parties now making up Norway's center-left government. Several are already calling for a reevaluation of Vanunu's asylum application.
"The case must be taken up again immediately," said both Ågot Valle and Bjørn Jacobsen of the Socialist Left (SV) party, one of three parties forming the current government.
SV's deputy leader Audun Lysbakken called the news about Vanunu's rejected asylum "shocking" and "hypocritical."
Marit Nybakk of the Labour Party, which leads the current government, also said she was "very surprised" to hear about the political motives behind the previous government's decision to deny asylum to Vanunu. "There should have been very serious reasons to deny such an application," she said.
Hard life in Jerusalem
Vanunu, meanwhile, continues live under constant surveillance in Jerusalem with restrictions on his freedom of movement and expression. He told Aftenposten.no that he has no work, income or support, and must live in a single room with 12 other persons.
As late as last year, Vanunu was convicted again and sentenced to another six months in prison, because he spoke with foreign journalists. His term was converted to community service, but he's aware he can be convicted again, at any time, because he defies the ban placed on his own freedom of expression.
The 53-year-old physicist, who has made it difficult for Israel to blast other countries's atomic weapons programs when it has one of its own, says he still has a hope of winning asylum in Norway. He said he will reapply if his initial application is no longer valid. Attempts to win asylum in other countries have been rejected, since they point to Norway's initial rejection.
Hypocrisy surrounds his case at nearly every level. "Norway's relations to Israel and the US are clearly more important for Norwegian authorities than consideration for human rights," he said.
