IMW Lada'at - Publication of GSS agent Raviv protocol banned by court and Attorney General, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post and Arutz 7

Court blacks out document on former agent Raviv
by
Moshe Reinfeld, Gideon Alon and Ariel Weiss,
Ha'aretz Correspondents

Justice Yaacov Turkel issued a gag order yesterday on the minutes of a secret discussion held in the office of Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein regarding former Shin Bet security service undercover agent Avishai Raviv.
The order was issued at Rubinstein's request after a journalist petitioned the High Court of Justice to allow him to publish the document.

The gag order also prohibits the use of direct or indirect quotes from the minutes of the meeting. Rubinstein's request explains that the notes include classified information that could harm national security and influence Raviv's trial.

Rubinstein and State Attorney Edna Arbel yesterday blasted Likud MK Michael Eitan for his intention to publish the notes. They said part of the information included in the notes was classified according to an order that was issued by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the framework of Raviv's trial, currently taking place at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court.

According to the order, revealing any information that could expose Shin Bet sources, operatives or operation methods could harm state security.

Rubinstein and Arbel noted that the document is secret and was clearly marked as such, and that any other claim means that the classification on the document itself was erased with malicious intent to mislead. Rubinstein said he had made this clear to Eitan more than a year ago.

Eitan said in response that the document he received was not marked
"secret." He said he had turned to Rubinstein of his own initiative after
obtaining the document, in order to verify its authenticity. As for the gag, Eitan said, "I find it very strange that on one hand, they try to shut me up, and on the other hand Rubinstein and Arbel say what they feel like saying. They are not responding to the accusations I presented to them, hiding instead behind claims of secrecy that have nothing to do with state security or anything. The use of supposed 'secrecy' is a refuge for people who do unworthy things. I will continue my public struggle in the demand to establish an external committee to investigate the whole affair of Avishai Raviv's employment by the Shin Bet and the involvement of the attorney general in this matter."

The document in question is the minutes of a discussion held in May 1996 regarding what was called the "swearing-in ceremony" of the extreme-right Eyal group, organized by Raviv in the summer of 1995. Raviv is currently on trial in connection with his role in the group's activities as well as on charges of not preventing a crime, in connection with the assassination of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The discussion was held in the office of then Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair, and was attended by the state attorney and other officials in the attorney's office and the Shin Bet.

Channel Two refrained from exposing the document on the talk show Mishal Cham on Monday, after Rubinstein's intervention.

© copyright 1999 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved

Jerusalem Post, Wednesday, November 3, 1999

JERUSALEM (November 3) - Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel yesterday
ordered a ban on publishing the classified protocol of a meeting that took
place three years ago between senior Justice Ministry officials and General
Security Service agents regarding GSS informer Avishai Raviv.

The ban, issued at the state's request, also extends to references from the
protocol in the petition of journalist Yoav Yitzhak, to which a copy of the
protocol was attached.

Raviv is currently on trial in Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on charges of
having failed to prevent a crime in connection with the assassination of
Yitzhak Rabin, and for conspiracy and incitement to racism for his conduct
at an alleged swearing-in ceremony for the Eyal organization.

After Rabin's assassination, it emerged that Raviv had served as an
informer for the GSS for many years, while, at the same time, he had
instigated many extremist activities against Arabs and the Rabin government.

The state's request for a publication ban was meant to strengthen the
measures taken by Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein to make certain that
the protocol is not disclosed in public.

On Monday, Rubinstein blocked an attempt by MK Michael Eitan to read out
sections of the protocol on Nissim Mishal's Channel 2 program, on the
grounds that it was a classified document. Yisrael Segal, one of the
program's moderators, said that minutes before Eitan was due to go on the
air, the chairman of Channel 2's board of directors, Mordechai Sklar,
ordered him to scrap the interview. According to Segal, Sklar said he had
been warned by Rubinstein that the protocol is classified and that
publicizing its contents is a criminal act.

Israel Radio law commentator Moshe Negbi explained on the air yesterday
that according to Paragraph 113 of the Penal Code, any government official
may declare that any government document is classified for any reason.

Rubinstein issued a statement saying that "publication of the protocol and
the information it contains would harm national security and the methods of
operation of the GSS. Furthermore, the protocol contains information which
is privileged according to a certificate issued by former prime minister
Binyamin Netanyahu."

Eitan blasted Rubinstein for attacking him instead of taking measures
against State Attorney Edna Arbel and GSS head Ami Ayalon, whom, he
charged, had conspired to cover up the truth about Raviv, the GSS, and the
State Attorney's Office and keep it from prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu
and members of his inner cabinet.

According to Eitan, Ayalon lied to the inner cabinet during a 1997 meeting,
when he said that only the police had investigated Raviv after Rabin's
assassination. He charged that Ayalon had told the cabinet the police had
been satisfied that Raviv knew nothing of Rabin assassin Yigal Amir's plans.

Eitan accused Arbel of not contradicting Ayalon and of telling the
ministers that the State Attorney's Office was not aware that the GSS was
operating Raviv.

Eitan told The Jerusalem Post he submitted a complaint to Rubinstein last
year about the "deceptions" of Arbel and Ayalon.

"Rubinstein doesn't care about the truth or the justice of the matter,"
charged Eitan. "All he wants to do is to protect the organization he
represents."

According to the Justice Ministry statement published Monday night, "in a
letter written by the attorney-general to the prime minister in September
1998, the attorney-general expressed the special gravity with which he
looked upon Deputy Minister Michael Eitan's leaking of the stenogram from
the proceedings of the Ministerial Committee for National Security
[regarding the meeting with Arbel and Ayalon]. It is all the more serious
that Mr. Eitan once again, apparently, leaks information from a secret
meeting contrary to the law."

Meanwhile, journalist Yitzhak petitioned the High Court of Justice to allow
publication of the protocol and to order Rubinstein to stop "terrorizing"
people by threatening to take criminal action against them.

Israel's Media Watch (IMW) Director, Yisrael Medad, commenting on the prohibition ordered by the court regarding the publication of a document representing the minutes of deliberations over IMW's 1995 complaint against the faking of news film footage of a "swearing-in" ceremony, noted that the current case is comparable to the Ellsberg/NYTimes case of releasing secret Pentagon reports.

Medad said: "beyond the immediate issue of whether the highest law enforcement officials in Israel perverted the true sense of justice in seeking to quash our complaint based on irrelevant issues, the document has the potential of possibly leading to the resignation of a Supreme Court Justice".

Medad added: "just recently we received the negative response of the State Prosecutor's Office to our appeal against closing the file on Eitan Oren, TV's Channel One reporter who was responsible for the staged broadcast. We are sure that we now have a chance of overturning that decision based on the material contained in this 'secret' document. Its contents reveal a cynical attitude towards law enforcement and citizens' rights".

"We are satisfied that the previous Attorney-General, Michael Ben-Yair, acted in fairness and with full professional ethics in this matter. On the other hand, the actions of the current A-G Elyakim Rubinstein are puzzling and incomprehensible".

HIGH COURT BLOCKS
CONTROVERSIAL DOCUMENT

The Supreme Court issued a restraining order last night forbidding the publication of the secret Avishai Raviv document, at the request of the State Prosecution. Journalist Yoav Yitzchak had filed a request in the Supreme Court permitting the document to be publicized. The Court will conduct a hearing on the issue within ten days.

[...]

The Prosecution said that MK Michael Eitan was told a year ago that the document is classified as "secret;" Eitan said two nights ago on television that he was specifically told by Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein that it was not secret. Yoav Yitzchak told Arutz-7 today that he called the State Prosecution yesterday, and asked the following question: "By what authority did Atty.-Gen. Rubenstein forbid the publication of the document, and threaten those who would publicize it with the opening of legal proceedings against them?" Yitzchak said that he had received no answer to his question, "because there is no answer."

Israel's Media Watch issued a statement today, providing some background to the secret document: "The document represents the minutes of a meeting held to discuss the complaint of IMW, made on November 27, 1995, against Eitan Oren and other IBA employees, on suspicion of filming and broadcasting an obviously faked and staged 'swearing-in' ceremony. Only in May of this year, fully three and one half years after the original complaint, IMW received the decision of the State Prosecutor's office to close the file. We appealed and our appeal was rejected. This document is a tremendous resource indicating that the Attorney-General was against the file's closure."

IMW is a registered non-profit organization whose major aim is assuring the ethical and fair conduct of the Israeli media.