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 and covers the Arab–Israeli conflict and Jewish-Muslim relations.

Tikun Olam exposed numerous stories banned for publication in Israel because of gag orders, or directives from Israel's Military Censor. Intelligence and military affairs correspondent 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.

In reporting one of the blog's scoops, Israel's Channel 10 news called it the "WikiLeaks of Israel."

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.

Tikun Olam was the first media outlet to publish a secret IDF memo describing the rules by which the Gaza siege was maintained including lists of banned foods and other basic necessities. The military refused to release it citing danger to national security, until Gisha, the Israeli NGO, forced it to do so under a Freedom of information legislation request. Israeli media published the story two days later.

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 later admitted to spying for Hezbollah, as part of a plea bargain. The Palestinian activist's plea comes in the context of an Israeli judicial system which, according to Makhoul's attorney, has never acquitted a suspect in a security case. Hence Makhoul was forced to weight the consequences of a likely heavy sentence if he refused a plea or a lighter sentence (the prosecution is asking for ten years as part of the plea) if he accepted one.

The blog was the first to report that Yitzhak Ilan was the likely candidate to succeed current Shin Bet 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 media outlet to report by name that Tamir Pardo, known in the Israeli media as "T." was a candidate to replace Meir Dagan as Mossad director. Subsequently, Pardo was named to the top job. The blog was first to report that 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. In December, 2010, Silverstein's blog reported that Prisoner X, who he'd earlier identified as a detainee being held incommunicado at Ayalon Prison (see below), was in fact Iranian Revolutionary Guard general and former deputy defense minister Ali-Reza Asgari, who was allegedly abducted by Mossad in Turkey. The report was based on information provided by a confidential source "in the inner political circle of defense minister Ehud Barak."

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.

Israeli Police

Tikun Olam reported that the son of the founder of Israel's most popular internet news portal/forum, Rotter.net, while serving as a police officer in Arab East Jerusalem, was also publicly advocating violence in the forum against Israeli peace activists demonstrating weekly in Sheikh Jarrah against eviction of Arab residents. Among other things, he urged Israeli settlers to throw stones at the protesters. The story was later reported by Channel 10 news, which compared the blog to Wikileaks.

Criticism

Naturally, in any publication about the Israeli-Arab conflict, there are strong views on both sides and a great deal of animosity for those on the other side of the argument. The blog has come in for its fair share of criticism and opprobrium. Phrases like "anti-Israel," "self-hating Jew," and "Israel hating" have been used to describe the author's views. He replies that the blog criticizes Israel's policies and the Occupation rather than Israel's existence itself.

In an article published by The Guardian, Silverstein criticized the Bush administration for revoking the visa of noted European Muslim scholar, Tariq Ramadan. The U.S. government would only say that it had taken this action because of unspecified security concerns. The blog author noted that many of these concerns might've been based on a published attack on Ramadan by Daniel Pipes, who claimed the former was a supporter of Islamic terrorism. Pipes added that the Department of Homeland Security concluded Ramadan had donated money to a Swiss Palestinian-support group that is blacklisted by the United States government. But Ramadan's supporters noted that the groups to which Ramadan donated were not proscribed by the U.S. when he made gave those gifts, and that there was no way he could know in advance that they would be.

Silverstein later accused Pipes of smearing Rashid Khalidi while under consideration for appointment to an endowed chair at Princeton University and also fired from teaching at New York public school about the Middle East, because of "false charges made by Daniel Pipes of supporting Arab radicalism." In response, Daniel Pipes pointed out that Khalidi served as a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the 1970s when it was still a registered terrorist organization by the U.S State Department.

In his blog, Silverstein claimed a representative from the pro-Israel watchdog organization CAMERA described Naim Ateek as "worse than Hamas.". CAMERA officials accused Silverstein of fabricating the statements, and asked Silverstein to provide evidence of the conversation and the name of the representative.

External links

• Tikun Olam