Tikun Olam (blog)
Tikun Olam (תקון עולם Tikkun olam) is a Seattle-based political blog, which regularly reports on Israeli security matters.[1] 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.[2]
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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]
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.[6] [7]
Tikun Olam 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.[8]
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.[9]
External links
References
- ^ Matthew Kalman, Olmert's Revenge Lifts Israeli Security Veil, AOL News, 21/9/2010
- ^ "Land of Secrets (Hebrew)". Haaretz. August 26, 2010.
- ^ "Debate in Israel on Gag Order in Security Leak Case". The New York Times. April 7, 2010. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
- ^ "Coming soon to Shabaks dungeons". Ha'Ir Tel Aviv Magazine. August 6, 2010. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
- ^ "Story IDF Censor Couldn't Stop on Top Secret Israeli Nuclear Base". July 11, 2010.
- ^ "Shin Bet's Cult of Secrecy Continues, Arab NGO Director Arrested Under Gag Order in Dead of Night". May 6, 2010.
- ^ "Security scandal angers Arab sector". Ynetnews. May 9, 2010.
- ^ "Mossad, the Cult of Secrecy, and Its Israeli Victims". April 22, 2010.
- ^ "Israel gripped by identity of 'Prisoner X'". The Daily Telegraph. June 21, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2010.