When I first began writing this blog, a question that always nagged at me was: why? Why write a blog? Who does it impact? What does it change? Now, these questions don’t bother me as much. But if I ever needed an answer to them I’d have it now, based on an Israeli security source, who notes that the new Shin Bet chief, Yoram Cohen, has ended (according to his/her claim) the agency’s use of gag orders and “disappearances” of detainees. The new director appears to have learned a lesson his predecessor, Yuval Diskin, did not: that when they engage in such draconian conduct, they only prove the arguments of their detractors, who say they are among the chief violators of civil liberties in Israeli society.
In other words, the oversight, as meager as it may be, by this blog and many others in Israel of the actions of the security apparatus has an impact. According to my source (and only time will tell if s/he is right), there will be no more secret arrests of Anat Kamm or Ameer Makhoul or many others whose detentions I’ve exposed here. Of course, it would even better were these individuals not arrested at all and instead given medals. But that, alas, is too much to hope for at the present moment. We have to be content with the fact that the system may have changed incrementally for the good.
Here is an example from the Hebrew press of the way the new system works. A security arrest is made and announced the same day in the press. Those arrested are named in the article.
Of course, an agency as set in its ways as Shabak is liable to take a long time to truly change its colors and there may be backsliding to the old ways. For example and contrary to what the source claims, I’ve noticed cases in which arrestees still either aren’t named or their names are placed under gag order. Recent examples, are the mosque burning in Tuba Zangariyye and the Peace Now attacks. In both examples, detainees or suspects were not identified and I named them in both cases. It’s possible that some of these cases involved the police rather than Shabak and the former may follow different rules. It’s possible that Shabak is more willing to name Palestinian detainees and less willing to expose Jewish ones. At any rate, we’ll have to observe for ourselves (and you too will, dear readers) whether they’ve changed their spots. If they have, we should give credit. If they haven’t, we will be here to note that as well.
I think it’s fair to say that Anat Kamm did not disappear. She was under house arrest. Her family and colleagues knew about her whereabouts, and she met with them regularly at her Tel-Aviv apartment.
Objectionable as the gad order may be, it’s unfair to portray Anat Kamm as someone who disappeared into the Shabak basements.
She disappeared. She was arrested in December if I recall correctly and not until March did anyone know where she’d gone. Perhaps you’re forgetting this article by Hanoch Marmari, It Can’t Happen Here, which says precisely what I did, that the disappearance of a human being from society can’t, or shouldn’t be able to happen here (that is, Israel). Yet it does.
It wasn’t till I reported that she’d been disappeared that she was “found.” I don’t know that her “colleagues” knew anything about where she was. Do you have proof of this? At any rate, if her family knew her whereabouts she had still disappeared for anyone else who might’ve wished to know where she was or why she was no longer publishing at Walla.
Well. It is true that she was arrested in December 2009. However, she was never incarcerated in Shabak facilities. I haven’t read a single report stating so, and not Kamm or her legal counsels have made such a claim.
This ynet report states that Kamm was under house arrest since December 2009:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3871970,00.html
Do you have any proof that Kamm was ever held for prolonged periods in a Shabak facility?
She certainly was detained & questioned by the Shabak & prob. Aman. Do you think they offer someone who they believe has leaked top secret IDF documents a nice hotel stay? Of course they take her down to HQ & give her the once over. Though they treat her far more nicely than the Ayrabs since she’s a nice light skinned Ashkenazi Jew. Once they questioned her they put her under house arrest. She was discovered I believe in November. I don’t know what prolonged periods means but of course she was detained & questioned by them extensively. Besides, I don’t understand what diff. there is bet. house arrest & a Shabak cell. She was under house arrest for four years. Would you find that a luxury if you were subjected to it? Or would it feel like prison? Is it better than a dungeon? Sure. But now she is in an Israeli prison. One where she doesn’t belong.
We were discussing whether or not Anat Kamm was “disappeared” by the Shabak. Surely you’d agree with me, that since Kamm was under house arrest during the entire time and continually accessible to her family and friends – she did not “disappear”.
Also, she was under house arrest for 2 years, not 4.
Who says she was accessible to anyone? Did you visit her at her home? Do you know any other friend who did? Do you have proof for yr claim?
Also, as part of her arrest conditions, Kamm regularly reported to a nearby police station. She walked from her Rabin square to the police station. Obviously she did not “disappear”, that is a hyperbolic statement.
Where do you get such ideas? Do you just make them up?
There was an interview on Channel 10 with her, I think, where she discussed the specific hardships of her house arrest. Among other things, she mentioned that she tries to take as long as possible getting to the police station, taking all sorts of routes, just to prolong her time on the outside.
Here’s a link to a short interview with Kamm where she talks about the circumstances that lead to her house arrest:
http://article.yedioth.co.il/default.aspx?articleid=4797
I recently finished reading The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander – very highly recommended. The book was set in Argentina at a time when it was ruled by a military junta that regularly “disappeared” people it felt were a threat to the regime – often just students guilty of owning a book deemed “subversive.” These enemies of the state were called los desaparecidos because they were never seen or heard from again. Subsequent investigations found that most were flown out to sea and simply dropped into the Atlantic. The tactics may have been different but the end result the same in numerous other countries like Algeria, Chile, Colombia, Iran, Syria, Turkey etc. Including Anat Kam among the other victims of “disappearing” is a bit disingenuous. Of course 4 years of house arrest is no fun, but it doesn’t compare in the least to being quickly and quietly taken away, murdered and then unceremoniously dumped in an anonymous grave. In my humble opinion I should add…
I’m getting sick & tired of your holier than thou approach. I didn’t invent the locution describing her as disappeared. If you’d read the ISRAELI articles written about her disappearance in the first months after it happened (to which I linked), THEY used the term. I borrowed a perfectly apt term from them. Not all disappeared people are killed and Israel is not (yet) a Latin America junta dictatorship. THough it could go that way. And if you think it isn’t possible in the future for an Israeli right wing dictatorship to arise which would disappear its leftist enemies permanently, then you’re deaf, dumb & blind.
Your opinion isn’t humble & isn’t accurate.
I can’t help how you respond to my approach. I try my best to be polite and civil, and even when I expressly and sincerely state that something is my opinion, you still take offense. I’ll just chalk that up to one of the deficiencies of communicating by text, as opposed to something else. In any case, just because some people in Israel used the term “disappeared” in the case of Anat Kam, it doesn’t mean that they used the term accurately. Some people here like to portray Israel as being akin to said Military juntas and worse. They use terms like “genocide” etc. to make that inaccurate association in order to score ideological points and in order to inflame the discourse. The use of the term “disappeared” in this instance, I believe (sincerely) is a similar distortion. You can disagree, it’s your blog after all, but as long as I am allowed to comment here, I will continue to express my opinion.
Now if you can point to where/how exactly I have manifested a holier than thou approach (other than by simply disagreeing with you), I will gladly alter said approach.
Ooops. When I said “Some people here…” I meant here where I live in Israel.
I don’t like an approach that routinely attempts to poke holes, find fault & errors. At least if you were correct some of the time I would find it useful. But you are routinely wrong, argue in bad faith & show yrself far more interested in pt scoring than having a discussion or even debate. There is very little that is civil in yr approach. It’s quite hasbarist actually. I take offense when yr opinions are wrong, as they regularly are.
A former editor of a major Israeli newspaper called her “disappeared.” She was disappeared. He used the term accurately. It is not a distortion. If you have a problem with the term take it somewhere else. Not here.
I’m not interested in cataloging, arguing or otherwise engaging w. you about instances in which you’ve violated my hospitality. You know what I’ve written to you when I’ve written it. And you should know that there will come a point when I will become so tired of yr carping that it will cross a threshold & you will no longer be welcome here. Consider this a warning that my patience is wearing thin.
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