BDUL RAHMAN AL-RASHED ARABNEWS
Sunday 17 February 2013
We are usually highly critical of Arab governments, accusing them of being outdated. We also blame them for having rigid commitment to policies of suppression and silence. But then we witness a country, such as Israel, displaying traits that are just as bad as those we have been criticizing. We typically assume Israel is a modern and strong country that can deal with everything in a transparent manner. It has larger universities, larger research centers and more advanced media institutes than us. This story, however, concerns Israel’s “Prisoner X”, who is believed to have committed suicide in his cell after being held secretly in prison where he was given the above code-name to conceal his identity. After an Australian television channel exposed Prisoner X’s fate, the Israeli security apparatus rushed to muzzle the local media by bringing together Israel’s journalists and warning them against publishing this news. This move only increased the British and other international media’s longing to investigate and uncover the “crime.”
For comparison purposes, let’s revisit the exposure of the last significant Israeli “secret” when Dubai Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan surprised the world with the substantial quantity of images and information about the Israeli cell that infiltrated the country and assassinated Palestinian leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in early 2010. Khalfan showed images of 27 people who had arrived in Dubai from six different countries using fake Western passports. This scene was unprecedented; photos, passports, places and a map showing the sequence of events. In this world of modern technology and communication, the fake passports, wigs and disguises did not help the agents because their faces were uncovered and revealed to the world. The faces of these agents would have been seen across the globe, rendering them useless for any future operations.
Prisoner X, who the Israelis claim committed suicide, may not be one of Mabhouh’s killers; the Australian media began investigating this mysterious detainee six months before the Dubai murder took place. Following the scandalous muzzling of the Israeli press, Tel Aviv has shown that it is primarily a security and military-based regime, adhering to out-of-date concepts in a world that is full of super-fast ways of reporting the news. Israeli writer Ronen Bergman tells an old story about the basement in Beit Sokolov (headquarters of Israeli Journalists Association), quoting an expert on military censorship. The military expert revealed, “Forty years ago, we had listening devices on phone lines belonging to foreign journalists. They used to call their colleagues, and we used sit and listen to their calls from the basement. Every time a journalist revealed more information than they should have, we would interrupt on the line and shout for them to stop. If that did not work, we would simply terminate the call. I think those rushing to conceal this story are still living with a ‘basement mentality.’”