As part of its continued persecution of Vanunu, Israel’s Shin Bet (internal security police) arrested the London Sunday Times reporter who blew the story in the first place. Ha’aretz covered the story as well:
“‘Israeli criminal law has clauses allowing legal action to be brought against journalists, providing that the alleged violations are in the security sphere,’ said legal commentator Moshe Negbi.”
“‘This is something that is not generally an accepted norm in proper democracies, but it exists.’”
Not surprisngly, I could not find one mention of this story in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN or Reuters. It is no wonder that Americans have a totally distorted view of the reality of Israel.
Supporters of Israel will argue that the fact that Ha’aretz has such an open and critical article about this story, and in general has a quite strong criticism of Israel in its pages, is proof that Israel is a vigorous democracy.
As I have noted many times when this topic comes up, Israel is still a relatively free place if you are Jewish, or rather a Zionist (i.e. a citizen who supports Israel as a Jewish state). But depending how far you are from “Zionism,” your freedom can be more or less restricted. If you are a Palistianin in the territories, you live under a totalitarian regime. An Arab citizen of Israel, you live under an authoritarian regime. Ibid, if you are Jewish and a refuser or a dissident like Vanunu.
br> But even for the “Zionists,” there are limits to how far freedom goes. For example, Ran Ha’Cohen has a more skeptical view of Ha’aretz’ “liberal” image. But the core issue is that one can’t maintain undemocratic rule over one part of society, without it eventually effecting the whole of society. Moshe Hanegbi has commented on this as well.
Every day that passes, a new red line is crossed, and whatever remains of democracy in Israel is shredded to pieces. A journalist doing his job, being pulled off the street in the middle of the day by secret police goons, is reminiscent of countries under the rule of juntas. Inevitably, average citizens will begin to be pulled off the streets as well. Israel is long past the slippery slope, and well into authoritarian, anti-democratic rule.