Documents detailing UK's involvement in Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal vanish

Israel maintains a policy of ambiguity concerning nuclear weapons, neither confirming nor denying publicly that it has the capability.

By DANIEL J. ROTH
Updated: AUGUST 6, 2016 20:05
Nuclear facility (photo credit: REUTERS)
Nuclear facility
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The United Kingdom on Thursday said that records detailing the UK's involvement in Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal have gone missing over the last four years, according to London based internet publication The Independent.
Over 400 documents were discovered missing after a Freedom of Information request failed to produce a number of files from the 1970's, including documents detailing the UK's involvement in Israel's suspected nuclear program.
Documents include more than 60 Foreign Ministry files, over 40 from the Home Office and six from the offices of former prime ministers, The Independent reported.
One file, titled “Military and nuclear collaboration with Israel: Israeli nuclear armament,” is among the vanished material and pertains to a United Nations resolution that notes "increasing evidence" that Israel was attempting to amass nuclear capabilities.
Israel maintains a policy of ambiguity concerning nuclear weapons, neither confirming or denying publicly that it has the capability.
Reached for comment by the BBC,  vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Archives and History, UK Labour MP Tristram Hunt, said that "the challenge is to ensure that you've got the systems to prevent... every loss of a potential piece of archive," because "you're losing some history and understanding,"
“You're losing a sense of connection and you're losing the fabric of the past,” the MP added.
A statement from officials at the National Archive at Kew, which is accountable for the preservation of government documents, said in a statement to The Independent: “We are a working archive with a robust, ongoing program dedicated to locating misplaced documents and many are subsequently found again after a thorough search.”


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