Now that the gag order is lifted, we should remember what’s at the heart of the Kamm affair

Anat Kamm at court

The gag order over the Anat Kamm case has been lifted today. This ends the first stage of this affair, in which Israel’s security authorities tried to prosecute and jail a citizen behind closed doors, without the public even hearing about the case. Due to collective effort by bloggers and activists in Israel and elsewhere, they failed.

But the case itself isn’t over yet. Ironically, the lifting of the gag order might actually hurt Anat Kamm, as the authorities try to change the public framing of the case from that of freedom of speech and due process to espionage. This was the massage in the briefing that was personally given by the head of Shin Beit Yuval Diskin to Israeli reporters today.

Link to English translation of the Indictment against Anat Kamm

Public atmosphere is extremely hostile to both Anat and Haaretz newspaper right now. Ynet, Israel’s most popular news site, has called her “the soldier spy”, and their military analyst, Ron Ben-Yishay, accused her of risking the life of Israeli soldiers.

This is the time to remind people what’s at the heart of this matter: Anat Kamm did Israeli democracy a great service. She exposed the fact that senior IDF generals, including Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, knowingly violated our own supreme court ruling by ordering the assassinations of Palestinians even when it was possible to arrest them, and when it was known innocent people might be killed. Again, this is not about Left or Right. It is about generals defying court orders.

The IDF and Shin Beit want the world to forget this. This is why they wanted to keep this case in the dark, and this is why they will work twice as hard to turn the public against Anat.

Shin Beit to brief Israeli reporters on Anat Kamm affair Thursday morning, as gag order about to be lifted

Security authorities have agreed to a partial lifting of the gag order regarding the investigation that led to the arrest of former soldier Anat Kamm. Kamm is to be charged with “espionage”, after  leaking hundreds of secret documents to Haaretz’s reporter Uri Blau, and possibly to other journalists.

Israel’s internal security agency has announced a special briefing to Israeli reporters tomorrow (Thursday) morning. It has been said that the head of Shin Beit, Yuval Diskin, is the one who insisted on the gag order (even the Knesset speaker didn’t know about it), and now wants Kamm to receive the maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

A 2008 article based on the documents allegedly leaked by Kamm revealed that senior IDF generals, including Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, knowingly violated Supreme Court ruling by ordering the assassinations of Palestinians who could have been captured alive. These charges were never investigated by any authority in Israel. Uri Blau, the author of the article, had his computer seized by Shin Beit and is now hiding in London. Haaretz’s editor, Dov Alfon, stated that Blau “will get all the help we can provide him.”

UPDATE: Shin Beit briefed reporters this morning. The gag order is being discussed right now. Kamm’s family to speak to the media in the afternoon.
UPDATE II: gag order lifted. Here are the first reports: Haaretz, Jpost, Ynet.