The Jerusalem Post’s archive has one mention of a meeting between Corbyn and a member of Knesset in Israel, on April 19, 1998.At that time, Corbyn was deeply involved in efforts to secure the early release of Vanunu, who was imprisoned in 1987 for revealing Israeli nuclear secrets to The Sunday Times of London.
Corbyn, who was a joint vice-chairman of the Human Rights Group of the British Parliament, met with then-Knesset State Control Committee chairman and Labor MK Yossi Katz.Katz had arranged for Vanunu to be removed from solitary confinement.While the article did not specify where the meeting took place, it may have happened in the Knesset. Katz told the Post on Thursday that he did not remember the location of the meeting, and said it could have taken place in Tel Aviv as well.“I didn’t realize it was Corbyn,” Katz said. “It was a member of the opposition – I won’t say he’s eccentric – but someone who was fighting for Vanunu. It was an okay conversation.”Corbyn and his co-chairman, Lord Avebury, along with actress Susannah York, requested to visit Vanunu and attempted to deliver a petition to then-president Ezer Weizman to pardon him. Weizman did not meet with the group. In 2004, Corbyn, York and others greeted Vanunu upon his release from Ashkelon’s Shikma Prison.