Anat Kamm Gag Order Published for First Time

I just received the Anat Kam gag order from a confidential source for whom I have great appreciation considering that s/he risked a great deal to offer this to me.  But before I reveal it to you I wanted to convey a hilarious comment Zvi Solow just wrote:

I realise that no one will believe this, but the truth is that we are not getting closer to Iran. We’re getting very close to Chelm tho’.

I wish I believed him.  I don’t think Israel’s intelligence apparatus is as out of control as Iran’s, but to argue that this is democracy or anything remotely close is also laughable.  Israel is somewhere between Chelm and Iran.

Let’s Wizard of Oz-like, open the curtains on the characters without whom this farce  could  not have existed.  For the judiciary, we have the plump, august Judge Einat Ron of the Petah Tikvah court.  For the Israeli police, we have Sa’ar Shapira to thank.

I’ve written about Judge Ron and her professional background in the military justice system, which explains why she was a pushover.  Other Israelis will have to tell us more about Shapira so that we can thank this person for their Chelm-like efforts to make Israel a laughingstock among the democratic nations.

The gag application notes that the code name of the investigation is “Double-Take.”  Which is interesting and may unintentionally reveal that two people are its targets: Anat Kam and Uri Blau.  The document is dated January 1, 2010 and says the order is extended for an additional 90 days (which would’ve taken it to April 1st).  The document reveals that a previous gag order, which I don’t believe anyone has publicly report until now.  It was secured on October 8, 2009.

Further, here are the justifications mounted for the gag order (and keep in mind that this investigation was seeking to identity and punish Anat Kam and possibly Uri Blau for exposing the fact that the IDF killed Palestinians in contravention of a decision from Israel’s highest court):

Publication of any sort about this investigation or any detail concerning it is likely to damage state security, to damage and frustrate the gathering of evidence, and the ability to prove criminal acts.

I can understand why an Israeli general might want to argue that exposure of his illegal acts would be damaging to state security.  But I can’t understand why any court worthy of the name would allow such a travesty.

This passage from the gag order document is also chilling.  It seeks among other things:

…To prohibit publication about the investigation or that it even exists, and on the judicial discussion of the matter and legal decision rendered by the court which have been and will be conducted…

We seek that the gag prohibits publication even about this application for a gag order, its content, and even the existence of a gag order in this case; and any other publication likely to identify the respondent, witnesses, suspects or others engaged in the investigation, including publications of their images, addresses, or other identifying details.

This is the rhetorical banality of state security apparatuses the world over.  I’d expect verbiage of this sort from the Burmese junta or perhaps Kim Jong Il’s North Korea.  But Israel?

The applications for the order is approved by Judge Einat Ron in her own hand.  I will have more on this woman of perspicacious judicial temperament in my next post.  This is starting to remind me of a serial soap opera with the major difference being that the “actors” in this case, the generals and their judicial enablers have brutally taken the lives of others or covered up the taking.

Stay tuned…