MIDDLE EAST: Michael Jansen found herself dining unexpectedly with a celebrity guest last weekend in Jerusalem
As I walked down the tree-lined drive to the home of my host and hostess last Saturday night, I found myself following a woman carrying a large covered dish and a slight, tanned man who looked very familiar. After arriving, once I had helped arrange the bouquet of pink and white flowers I had brought and poured myself a glass of chilled white wine, I went into the garden where I was introduced to the man I thought I knew.
"Michael, I would like you to meet Mordechai Vanunu," said my host, inviting me to sit down next to Israel's world famous nuclear whistle-blower. I found myself gazing into two steady dark eyes set in a remarkably unlined, young face.
"I should warn you I am a journalist," I said, well aware that he was forbidden to speak not only to journalists but also non-Israelis of any kind. The gathering, therefore, was illegal because it consisted of Mordechai Vanunu and more than a dozen foreigners.
This was just the kind of situation South Africans of different ethnic backgrounds experienced in the days of apartheid, when members of the black, brown and white communities were not permitted to mix socially.
My host explained that it was for this very reason that he had not told me Mr Vanunu would be at the party, and made the point that it was dangerous for him to leave his new confinement in the pilgrim hostel, connected to St George's Anglican Cathedral in east Jerusalem.
Mr Vanunu took a sip of his Taiybe Palestinian beer: "I speak to foreigners and to journalists. I have just given an interview to al-Hayat [a pan-Arab newspaper published in London\]. You know al-Hayat?" he asked.
"Of course," I replied. "Won't interviews harm your application for the right to meet people and travel?"
"My lawyer is not optimistic," he shrugged. He told me he had asked a number of countries to grant him asylum, including Ireland, Norway, and Britain. But all said they would wait to see what the Israeli court decided - which was, as he predicted: No to travel.
"I want my freedom, I want to feel free to walk down the street and speak to anyone I meet ... I do go around here in the Palestinian area. No one bothers me. But I am not free."
His friends believe he is constantly monitored as well as at risk from Israelis who believe him to be a traitor. In 1986, he gave an interview to the Sunday Times of London which revealed to the world the extent of Israel's nuclear programme. I asked him why he took such a dramatic step.
"When I was working at the Dimona reactor I found that there was a huge secret area. There were seven floors, two for research and five for developing weapons. They made enough enriched uranium each year for 10 bombs, and did this for 10 years. I could not accept that the Jewish people who had suffered so much during the Holocaust could make a holocaust against someone else.
"When American congressmen came to inspect Dimona they saw only the two top floors. The others were sealed by a wall ... You know, it's interesting that Mohammed ElBaradei [the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency] came to Israel recently and did not ask to see me."
Over dinner Mr Vanunu told me how he managed to survive 18 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement.
"I had my faith [he has converted to Christianity]. My belief made me strong. I read my English Bible. It improved my English a lot ... But I am certain that I was kept so long in prison and in solitary because I am a Christian. They did not like it that I am a Christian. Jews who did worse things were not treated as harshly as I was."
He left his cell in April and took up residence in a single room in St George's hostel, which is run by Anglicans. He has a computer and reasonably good food. He has many friends and well-wishers.