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The Low-Down on Israel’s Jailed Journo

With gag order lifted, there is a tale to tell!

by
Marc Tracy
April 08, 2010
Anat Kamm.(Wikimedia Commons)
Anat Kamm.(Wikimedia Commons)

Tablet Magazine has just published Haaretz spy correspondent Yossi Melman’s account of the Anat Kamm affair. It’s a great basic summary, and you should read the whole thing.

Kamm is a journalist who, while in the army (into 2007), stole documents from IDF Central Command and handed them to Haaretz investigative reporter Uri Blau. He used them to publish a damning 2008 article reporting that Israeli military commanders knowingly planned to violate a Supreme Court ruling that barred the assassination of terrorists where arrests were feasible. Several months ago, prosecutors placed Kamm under house arrest and charged her under treason law; Blau lives in Britain, fearful of returning.

“Israel’s military censors approved Blau’s article, finding that its publication would not damage Israel’s national security,” Melman says. “Yet an intention to do such damage is precisely what Kamm is now accused of.”

Israel had imposed a gag order over the whole case, so that most reporting had been done by American reporters like Richard Silverstein and Ron Kampeas. Even the New York Times ran yesterday’s article on it with no byline to avoid breaking the gag (h/t Ben Smith). That order was lifted today; you can see that reflected on the Websites of the Israeli papers, as well as our own.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.