Sabbah Report » Ban

How Israel Gagged on its own Gag Order

SR Editor — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:08:58 +0000

Why conceal the fact that the Shin Bet has a "hit list" and gives license to its commando units to carry out field executions? Anat Kam is finding out the price of speaking truth to power.

By Gila Svirsky* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

This story is a testament to the Internet. And to Anat Kam, the whistleblower, who is widely regarded in Israeli security circles as a traitor and will probably soon be charged with treason.

Anat (I'll use her first name, though I don't know her) is a 23-year old journalist who wrote for the popular Israeli portal Walla. Some months ago, Anat did the unthinkable: she passed on information that was decidedly newsworthy, but that the Shin Bet – Israel's security services – did not want outsiders to have. It was a"hit list" – the names of Palestinians living in the West Bank who were on the Shin Bet's "wanted" list. And it was a copy of the Shin Bet protocol stating that if these "wanted" figures are identified during the course of a military action, permission is granted to carry out "an interception". Nice language for execution without trial.

Reports are that Anat photocopied this classified information while serving in the IDF. She allegedly passed on this classified information to Uri Blau, a journalist, who published it months ago as a major scoop in Ha'aretz. Now Ha'aretz has whisked Uri away to London to protect him from the Israeli authorities, who would love to interrogate him about his informant. Meanwhile, Anat has been under house arrest and held incommunicado for at least three months.

This is a big story, but until today no Israeli newspapers could publish it because a judge issued a gag order at the Shin Bet's request. But go ask Henry Miller about banned books. Thanks to the ban and Israel's inability to control cyberspace, the story has taken on vastly greater proportions. Every news outlet in Israel – newspapers, radio, TV, news portals – has front-paged the story now that the gag order was lifted. It would never have received such widespread attention had the authorities not tried to hide it in the first place. And had the Internet not cloned the story through every webpage eager to expose state secrets.

This is not the first time the Israeli authorities have arrested suspects and held them incommunicado for extended periods. It happens to Palestinians all the time. The best known case of an Israeli is Mordechai Vanunu, who blew the whistle on Israel's nuclear warfare capabilities 24 years ago and was tried behind closed doors. More recently, Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Yaakov, an Israeli citizen now living in the U.S., was arrested on a visit to Israel in 2002, and a gag order placed on news of his month-long detention and interrogation. Yaakov, a key scientist in the development of Israel's nuclear weapons program, was suspected of divulging some of Israel's secrets, but eventually was released without charge.

So Israel has managed to draw widespread international attention to a story it wanted to hush up. But why conceal the fact that the Shin Bet has a "hit list" and gives license to its commando units to carry out field executions? After all, doesn't the U.S. do the same thing in its own so-called war against terror?

Israel, in my view, wanted to hide this information to avoid the legal and diplomatic ramifications of disclosures that its soldiers were once again breaking international law. Israel has been playing defense ever since the Gaza Campaign, trying to keep its senior politicians and officers out of European courts on charges of war crimes. Most recently (December 2009), opposition leader Zipi Livni cancelled a trip to London out of fear she would be arrested, thanks to universal jurisdiction of human rights violations. Similar arrest orders were deflected by other senior Israelis (Barak, Mofaz, and Almog). Publicity about a hit list and hit squads could only add fuel to the growing criticism of Israel and the fear among its leaders of being arrested on a visit to Europe. Not to mention the fact that Israel's own Supreme Court outlawed such unprovoked assassinations just months ago.

But really, isn't Israel still the "only democracy in the Middle East"? Concealing someone's arrest and the charges against her are clearly pages from the annals of dark regimes. And the broader context is the growing McCarthyite culture inside Israel – the silencing of its critics, the squirreling away of its whistleblowers. We see this in the hate campaign against Israeli human rights organizations, which has now reached a new peak – a bill before the Knesset that would severely hamper these organizations from receiving funds from foreign states, one of their only sources of support as the Israeli government is not about to fund human rights activity.

What's not to love about secrecy, lies, and human rights violations? Praise the whistleblowers and all those who turned on the Internet lights, making it impossible for the authorities to turn them off again.

* Gila Svirsky is a writer and an Israeli Jew peace and human rights activist.

The World Summit on the Information Society

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 20:22:38 +0000

Dispatch from Tunis: The Civil Society Summit That Wasnï¿½t Today as a global summit on the Internet got underway, the Tunisian government did all it could to smother a local summit on the same topic. One might think that a world conference on improving global Internet access represents a prime chance for the government to reverse its reputation for intolerance of dissent, but the dayï¿½s events proved it to be an opportunity missed.
Alongside a world summit, the police ban a gathering of international and Tunisian associations and foreign associations to hold a meeting in order to prepare an event within the World Summit on the Information Society this morning.

Latest Ban, Hejran, Kan-Zaman and ‘Habalan’

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 11:58:16 +0000

The Ban:

Officials at the Kuwaiti Information Ministry have confirmed that its ï¿½Censorship Departmentï¿½ has refused a request for a concert during the Muslim holiday Eid Al Fitr for Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram.

A committee member stated that Nancy should not be allowed to sing at public celebrations in Kuwait and supported the Ministryï¿½s decision to ban her. I was told that Egyptian singer Ruby is also banned from performing in Kuwait.

Welcome onboard, Kuwait (previously Morocco).

Al Hejran:

The organizers of the reality TV program ï¿½Al Wadiï¿½ (The Ranch) have announced that they received a formal letter from the managing office of Lebanese singer Haifa Wahbi informing them of her withdrawal from the show.

Haifaï¿½s departure from the ï¿½Ranchï¿½ was filmed live and she had requested the camera man to stop filming saying ï¿½If you are filming me pack stop, I want to leave, I am fed up and want to be alone.ï¿½ The singer left her room at the ranch in tears seeking solitude and some peace of mind.

Ya 7aram!

And Kan Zaman:

Once more, photographs of Lebanese singer Alissa are splashed across Western magazines, after winning the ï¿½2005 World Music Awardï¿½ for highest record sales in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Alissa is the first Arab to receive the prestigious award.

But this time it was not Alissaï¿½s accomplishments as a singer that drew the attention of American magazine ï¿½US,ï¿½ instead it was to compare the dress she wore to the awards ceremony to the same one worn by American pop star Jennifer Lopez at an event in New York.

Wallahe it looks better on Elissa. Kan Zaman ya Jenny, you are getting old!

I can't believe I'm writing about all this :-)

The Habalan:

Well, actually when I came across these stories today, they reminded me of the headline on Al-Arabiya (in Arabic) that these ladies are serious threat to the Israel:

Official Israeli report (by the General Agency for Israeli Cinema and Arts, September 2) denounced Nancy Ajram, Hayfa Wehbi, Maria and other Lebanese popstars as posing a destructive and serious threat to the Israeli state because of their ï¿½political activities which have great influence in the Arab world due to their great popularity.ï¿½

Well, I like to believe what the Israeli report said. In fact I believe that they are "destructive", but to Israel?

Hence, I've decided to promote these brigade artists. Who knows, we might get our rights and occupied lands on their hands one day!

Long live Nancy, Haifa, Maria, Elissa, Marwa, Khadejeh (Future SuperStar), etc...