ISRAELI STATE Fight for press freedom continues A FIRST battle against the new attack on the right of information in Israel was won with the release of Michel Warschawsky on bail on March 17. The director of the Alternative Information Centre (AIC) had been jailed a month before in a spectacular raid on the indepen dent communications office. [See the last issue of IV.]
A flood of protests by defenders of freedom of the press and democratic rights in Israel and throughout the world got him out of jail. But the fight to reaffirm the right of freedom of information is still being fought out, and the Alternative Information Centre continues to need the maximum international solidarity.
features. But the attempt to gag us has backfired. The use of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance to close a licensed office on the hackneyed pretence that its activities were harming state security has provoked vehement protest from civil rights associations, journalists, politicians and all people who value democracy in Israel and abroad.
"We will not be gagged!
"We will not sit idly by while our civil rights are systematically violated. And we will not acquiesce to the authorities' attempts to monopolize the flow of information.
"Our determination to keep open alternative channels of information has : not been deterred.
"News from Within will continue to appear." Drop the charges against Warschawsky!
The high reputation for professionalism and accuracy gained by News from Within has helped in particular to arouse protests from journalists and journalists' organizations. For example, immediately after the raid on the Centre the Israeli magazine Ha'olam Haze (February 18) reported that the closing of the AIC was "arousing outrage" among Israeli journalists and foreign correspondents who used its service. The Jerusalem Journalists' Association issued a protest, as did the Danish Journalists' Union on March 4.
But the Centre remains closed. Its materials and equipment are still in the hands of the Israeli security services. And Michel Warschawsky continues to face charges under a 1948 emergency decree that could lead to a sentence of up to ten years. Moreover, his legal defence is made more difficult by the fact that the decree puts the onus of proof on the defendent and not on the authorities.
It is essential that protests continue calling for the dropping of the charges against Warschawsky for allowing the Alternative Information Centre to resume its work without interference. In the meantime, the AIC badly needs material support so that it can continue to get out the news that it collects until it can get its equipment back.
The Centre's present address is PO Box 165, West Jerusalem, Israel. Messages of support for, and contri butions to, the campaign for Warshawsky's defence and for the Centre can be sent to the Release Michel Warschawsky Fund, 2 rue Richard Lenoir, 93108 Montreuil, France.
Within days after the raid on the Alternative Information Centre and its closure by the Zionist police, a new issue of the Centre's bulletin, News from Within appeared. Its frontpage story declared. "We will not be gagged!" The article continued:
"On February 16, 1987, the Israeli authorities' iron fist came down within the green line [the Israel of 1948 from the territories occupied in 1967] against Israeli Jews .... Israeli and Palestinian members of the AIC collective were arrested, stacks of printed material were confiscated and the centre's equipment were seized.
"Our 'crime' lay in providing Israeli, Palestinian and foreign journalists with accurate and up-to-date information on human rights violations in the occupied territories and on social and political issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The Alternative Information Centre operated openly. Our office was registered with the Ministry of the Interior and its publications were submitted to the censor in accordance with censorship regulations. The door to the office was open to everyone, save for members of Kach [Rabbi Kahane's anti-Arab racist party ], Gush Emunim [a West Bank Jewish settler organization] or illegal organizations, until the police locked up the centre.... For three years, the centre provided news, translation and typesetting services to thousands of clients, including journalists, news agencies, consulates and embassies, public institutions and individuals interested in the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
"Why, without even the slightest warning, did the authorities suddenly decide to close the centre? Was it because the centre was successfully challenging the Israeli Defence Force spokesperson's monopoly on the flow of information from the occupied territories? Did the authorities close down our office in order to claim 'even-handedness' when next it closes down licensed offices similar to ours in the occupied territories? Why have the authorities reacted with such anxiety to the centre's concern for the civil rights of Palestinian political prisoners and detainees under interrogation. And is it mere coincidence that the raid occurred exactly one week after members of the AIC collective organized a demonstration in Jerusalem on behalf of Mordachai Vanunu's right to a fair and open trial? .... What is clear is that the centre's closure has made it easier for the authorities to conceal their current campaign of repression in the occupied territories under a cloud of unknowing. Attempt to gag the Centre has backfired
"Ignorance is purposefully directed. The Israeli government has all the reasons in the world to suppress in. formation about the seamier side of the occupation. And its abhorrence of any form of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation is one of its most salient