A new security-related affair is causing a firestorm within the Israeli Arab community and has reignited a furious debate on secrecy and national security. … Some of the details from the latest investigation have been reported on a growing number of blogs and Internet sites based abroad, but cannot be reported inside Israel.
Well. Leave it to Moshe Yaroni, the pseudonymous writer for Zeek, to sort out what he calls a case of “KGB tactics”:
Ameer Makhoul, the director of Ittijah — The Union of Arab Community-Based Associations — has been arrested in the dead of night, while he and his family slept in their home in Haifa. Let us be clear—Makhoul is an Israeli citizen. Yet the arrest of this high-profile activist has been again placed under a gag order. You’re reading about it here, but Israeli reporters, news outlets and even blogs are forbidden from writing about it.
With the news blackout, any serious charge against Makhoul is unknown. A Petah Tikvah court extended his detention for six days and he is barred from consulting an attorney for at least two days. Makhoul had been barred from leaving the country in late April, by order of Interior Minister Eli Yishai.
No doubt, Makhoul is a figure the Israeli government would love to keep quiet. He has been an outspoken critic of Israel, and he supports the international movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the state. A year ago, he was interrogated by the Shin Bet for a day, and released, but he has never, as far as I can determine, been convicted of any crime or been demonstrated to have ties to any sort of terrorism. (My emphasis.)
In other news, MJ Rosenberg thinks the (Jewish American) kids are all right.
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