Uri Blau Returns to Israel for Questioning, Kamm Close to Plea Deal

In a follow-up to a story first exposed here, Haaretz investigative reporter, Uri Blau, and his source Anat Kamm, may be close to resolving their respective legal predicaments, that resulted from her transferring to him 2,000 IDF secret documents which he used to write damning reports about military abuses in Gaza and the West Bank.

After a year on the run in Europe, Blau has returned to Israel to face questioning from the police and Shabak.  I would hope for his sake that he already has an ironclad agreement with the prosecution.  Otherwise, he could be charged with anything as a result of this questioning.  My hope is that Israel will finally understand that in a democracy the press functions as a legitimate brake on abuses by the state and that Blau was serving this role and doing so admirably.

Galey Tzahal reports that Anat Kamm is close to signing a plea deal in her case as well.  A sign of the “evenhandedness” of the Israeli press can be found in the story’s description of her as “the spy soldier.”  The report only says that the deal would reduce the charges she faces, but doesn’t specify what range of punishment she may be facing.  If the deal is any greater than a two-year sentence (with her past year under house arrest included), then the State will be taking revenge against her for doing precisely the same thing IDF soldiers have done in the past with far lesser punishment (in fact I wrote here that one soldier, after giving secret documents to Blau faced confinement to base as her sole punishment).

There still is a possibility for a further miscarriage of justice here, so we’ll have to keep a close tab on this one.