Background / Israel v. Israel: the new Vanunu shroud

[Classical_Liberal]

A gag order shrouded the details of the arrest, coupled with a directive that kept Hounam from meeting with defense counsel, assured that the case would not only become an immediate cause celebre throughout the world, but that Israel would be seen in as poor a light as possible, commentators noted.

"In the only democracy in the Middle East, one doesn't arrest journalists," analyst Hanan Krystal wryly noted on state-owned Israel Radio.

Told by a veteran foreign correspondent that she was not shocked at the arrest, said to have been the first such incident in Israeli history, Krystal asked, "Why are you not in shock? In Cuba, for example, you would expect journalists to be arrested, not in Israel.....

Feldman told reporters that he thought the affair would end Thursday, having caused the country great shame.

"In a most worrisome manner, they are preventing a meeting between Peter and his attorney, a step which is generally taken in cases of grave security offenses, against terrorists or spies. In Hounam's case, "the most you can say is that he did his job as a journalist."......

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=432382&displayTypeCd=1&sideCd=1&contrassID=2