Tikun Olam (blog)

Tikun Olam (תקון עולם Tikkun olam) is a Seattle-based political blog, which regularly reports on Israeli security matters. The blog was created in 2003 by Richard Silverstein, a Hebrew-literate American Jew and covers the Arab–Israeli conflict and Jewish-Muslim relations.

With help from Israeli sources, Tikun Olam exposed several stories banned for publication in Israel because of gag orders, or directives from Israel's Military Censor. One of Israel's foremost security correspondents, Yossi Melman of Haaretz, wrote:

The American blogger Richard Silverstein has transformed himself into the international message board of information which military censorship and Israeli courts forbid publishing. In the past, he reported on the Anat Kamm case while Israeli authorities gagged the mouths of Israel’s media...Silverstein’s blog is important because he exposes the security services and the courts in all their nakedness. They use the instruments of the 20th century to protect secrets which aren’t really secrets in the age of 21st century technology.

scoops

Israel Defense Forces

The blog was the first to break the IDF censor's prohibition against naming Anat Kamm as a former IDF soldier held for leaking secret military documents to Haaretz reporter, Uri Blau. It was also the first to break a gag order and identify "Captain George" (Doron Zahavi), a former interrogator in the Israeli Intelligence Corps, accused of sodomizing Lebanese prisoner Mustafa Dirani. Furthermore, the blog published the full version of a report that was heavily censored within Israel, about the top secret nuclear missile airbase in Sdot micha. Silverstein was the first to publish the name of the Israeli soldier featured in a YouTube video abusing a bound, blind-folded Palestinian woman detainee, Ihsan Dababseh, by dancing a suggestive Arab dance around her. The soldier, Avi Yakobov, subsequently refused to apologize to the detainee and said that while his behavior had been childish, he claimed that she had been arrested for attempting to stab another soldier. Though she was later convicted of belonging to Islamic Jihad and served a 22 month sentence, she was neither charged with nor convicted of the assault Yakobov claimed.

Shin Bet

Tikun olam broke the gag order against reporting the arrest of prominent Israeli Palestinian political activists Ameer Makhoul and Omar Said by the Shin Bet, who accused them of spying against Israel on behalf of Hezbollah. Neither detainee was permitted to consult an attorney for several weeks, and Makhoul contends that his alleged confession was extracted under torture. Said pled to a reduced charge and went free. Makhoul remains in custody. The blog was the first to report that Yitzhak Ilan was the likely candidate to succeed current Shabak director, Yuval Diskin. By law, Israeli publications are only allowed to publish the names of the Shabak and Mossad directors, but no subordinate personnel.. Ilan in Israeli news reports has been referred to as "Y.".

Mossad

Tikun Olam was the first to report that Mossad chief Meir Dagan managed to squelch a Knesset investigation of the targeted killing of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The blog also revealed the identity of Immanuel Sonino, a Mossad agent who died in line of duty, and whose name is still a secret in Israel, almost two decades after his death.

Israel Prison Service

Tikun Olam was the first non-Israeli publication to break the story of of Prisoner X, an unknown detainee held in isolation whose identity was not even known to his jailers. A source within Israel Prison Service speculated to Silverstein that he may be an Arab security prisoner. The fact that there is a gag order against reporting about him and that he sits in a special cell constructed to house the Israeli assassin, Yigal Amir, who murdered Yitzhak Rabin, indicates that Prisoner X is likely a high-profile security suspect.

External links

• Tikun Olam