Did banned Haaretz article foretell of Gaza war crimes?

[Helen Reyes]

The strange part is, Anat Kamm was working under the assumption Nuremberg was binding international law, and she was disobeying orders in order to serve a higher cause and stop war crimes.

The Israeli Supreme Court didn't see it that way. Too bad for her she couldn't have had a surname like Demjanjuk, she might've got away with murder if she had.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Latest:

Israeli soldier faces long jail term for passing secret papers to reporter

Docments leaked from general's office show officials authorised killing rather than arrest of Palestinian militants despite

Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 February 2011 14.39 GMT

A former Israeli soldier is facing a long prison sentence after admitting that she passed thousands of classified military documents to a newspaper reporter.

Anat Kam, 24, has been under house arrest since she was charged in January 2010 with espionage and intent to harm state security with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. In a plea bargain, that charge was dropped when she admitted to collecting and passing on secret information. She faces a maximum sentence of 15 years, but prosecutors are reportedly asking for about nine years.

Among the documents leaked by Kam to the Haaretz reporter Uri Blau were papers showing that Israeli military and security officials had authorised the killing of Palestinian militants in operations where they could have instead been arrested. Kam made copies of 2,000 documents, including 700 marked top secret, during her national service as a clerk in the office of a top Israeli general.

Blau published an investigation revealing the content of the documents in November 2008. The assassinations contravened an Israeli high court judgment which ruled that militants must be arrested where possible.

Blau's article was approved by the military censor, and Kam was not arrested for more than a year after publication. The Haaretz journalist remained in London, where he was at the time of Kam's arrest, for many months, fearing he would face prosecution if he returned to Israel. He flew back in October after his lawyers struck a deal with the Shin Bet security service under which he returned the documents.

After Kam's arrest, the Israeli authorities imposed a gagging order on the reporting of the case, which was lifted last April.

Kam admitted the lesser charge of possession and distribution of classified information at Tel Aviv district court. She declined to comment beyond issuing a brief statement.

"We agreed to a plea bargain today," she said. "Out of respect for the court, I don't intend on discussing the sentence. Today I admitted to committing the crimes attributed to me. I'm not thinking about the punishment. What's written in the law is out of my hands."

Eytan Lehman, Kam's lawyer, urged a "proportionate" punishment. "What we said from the beginning is true there was no intention of harming Israeli security," he said. A harsh sentence would damage Israeli democracy, he added. "If people are afraid to speak out about things that happen that should not happen, this is very dangerous."

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for 11 April, but Lehman expected the sentencing to take place some weeks after that. Kam will remain under house arrest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb...ces-prison

[Magda Hassan]

Haaretz journalist Uri Blau was convicted under a plea bargain on Tuesday of possessing classified information. The two sides agreed on four months of community service.
One of Blau's legal representatives Jack Hen said, "This is a precedent-setting prosecution of a journalist for doing his job, according to which the public's right to know and freedom of the press were seriously damaged by the decision to put a journalist on trial for these reasons."
He said that the decision to put Blau on trial was not easy, and that an indictment should not have been served against him. Hen added that all of Blau's articles had been approved by Israel's military censor.
He repeated that, to his knowledge, no journalist or anyone for that matter had been put on trial for possession of classified documents with no related offenses.
Blau asked to speak during the trial, and told the judge that the case had taken over his life: "The fact that I have been convicted of a criminal offense and the fact that Anat Kamm is serving a harsh punishment are things that I did not wish for."
In his words, it is his duty as a journalist to keep the public informed. "This is the meaning of free press in a democratic country, and this is how I see my role as a journalist," he said.
The State Prosecutor's Office reached a plea bargain with Blau, after he was accused of possessing classified Israel Defense Forces documents earlier this month. The accusations came a little over a month after the state had announced its intention to indict him.
As part of the plea bargain deal, Blau agreed to admit to holding secret intelligence, without intent to harm national security.
The deal was reached between representatives of the Tel Aviv district of the State Prosecutor's Office, Ariela Segal and Hadas Fuhrer-Gafni, and Haaretz legal representatives Mibi Mozer and Jack Hen.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/haa...o-1.453292