Frameup continues against
ISRAEL
The raid on the AIC was carried out in an extremely brutal and intimidating way. The police came in, cut off the telephone and electricity, and took away all those in the office publications in the premises, including the Center library, and confiscated and reproducing equipment. The arrests were televised.
After interrogation, writing in the February 19 issue of
THE SHUTTING down of the Alternative Information Center (AIC) in Jerusalem on February 16 and the jailing of its director, Michel Warschawsky, have become a cause celebre in the Israeli press and among foreign correspondents in the country. It appears that there is a real danger of a major frameup. GERRY FOLEY
The prosecutor claimed when Warschawsky was brought before Judge Aharon Simha that the police had evidence that one of the sources of finance for the Center was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine which is led by George
Refused bail on March 10, Warhas now been held in jail for a month. The state has also reportedly assigned a top interrogator to
February 18 issue, the magazine Ha'olam Haze reported that the closing of the AIC was "arousing among Israeli journalists and foreign correspondents who used its
In the February 18 issue of Al Hamishmar, the paper of the Mapam party, staff writer Pinhas Imbari wrote that the closing of the center deprived the Israeli press of a means of checking tons against Palestinians. "What is sure in this case," he wrote, "is that democracy is the loser."
paper Kol Ha'ir wrote February 20 that the publications of the Center - a daily bulletin, a weekly one, and a fortnightly publication, News from Within reputation among journalists. One of the users, for example, was Danny Rubenstein, the correspondent for the occupied territories for Davar, the paper of the Labor Party.
The Center collected information on repression of Palestinians, especially on the West Bank, relying extensively on the accounts of political prisoners and their families. It was the only service, for example, to give an advance report of the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli military men held by Ahmed Jibril's faction of the PLO.
various reports, International Viewpoint 23 March 1987 credited the Center's
News from
Within, with 250 to
500 subscribers around the world, including masscirculation publications, such as the
Miami Herald.
written information was provided by the Center, for press represenand tourists who wanted to see the sides of the Zionist system not presented in official propaganda.
In the February 20 issue of Kol
Yerushalayim, a Jerusalem local paper, the journalist Haim Bar-Am described
Warschawsky as a sensible and careful person. He thought that it was unthinkable that, as director of the
Center, he would have done anything that would give the police a pretext a prosecution. Bar-Am pointed were opposed to adventurism and support for terrorism.
Center under constant
Warschawsky workers for the Center are members
Revolutionary
League, the section of the Fourth in the Israeli
International the Israeli papers gave potted histories none of them very of the LCR, accurate. Bar-Am's statement helped to make it clear that Warschawsky's politics in fact ran counter to the police accusations.
Lea Tsemel, a well-known
Warschawsky's wife, attorney, and told reporters that they that the Center surveillance, would have been crazy to indulge in any illegal activity there.
Hadashot, a right-wing popular paper, the judge un-
The reports of the hearing in the daily papers themselves indicated an unconcealed prejudice on the part of the judge, Aharon Simha. For example, Maariu of February 19 when Lea Tsemel asked interrogator, authorities so long before staging the raid, the judge replied for him, were waiting for the big fish."
accusations, according to Maariu, was that Warschawsky had drawn up a guide to help persons arrested interrogation. prosecutor claimed that this constituted a danger to gations whose aim is to defend state
The drawing up of leaflets about "What to do if arrested" is one of the basic functions throughout the world centers involved work. This may be the first time, however, that the police of a parliademocracy have tried to make this a crime. It speaks volumes on intimidation in their dealings with police also claimed to have found "illegal agitational materials" in the Center. Staff members said that were publications of banned Palestinian groups in the office, but were part of the library tried to follow have them, they said.
The police officer responsible for the raid, Commander David Krauss, the 1948 "Decree Terror" to justify the action. It states: "The police commander is authorized to order in writing the closing of any premises serving a terrorist organization or its members, either continuousplace of activity, meetings, propaganda or storage."
In its February 18 issue, Ha-Aretz, Israel's prestige newspaper, noted that this is the first time in the history of the (not terribly squeamish) Zionist
3
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
Warschawsky
NEWS FROM WITHIN
WE WILL NOT Anti-Copyright 1987 state that this decree has been utilized.
The police accusation reported in the Israeli press are generally quite vague: that the Center served as a place of "hostile" propaganda and
BE GAGGED! was frequented by "hostile" people.
Lili Galili of Ha-Aretz asked Eli Aminov, a spokesperson for the LCR, in particular about one of the Center's employees, Ali Jedda, a Palestinian political prisoner released in Jibril's exchange. He was involved in a terrorist action 20 years ago.
Obviously in order to present the other side of the official accounts Palestinians, the Center had to have considerable dealings ians who at one time or another have Center on this basis is like shutting down a defense lawyer's office because it is frequented by "suspicious people."
The Association for Citizens' Rights in Israel issued a protest against the published in Ha-Aretz of February 18, in which it pointed out:
"The Center's activity took place under the rules of the censorship, and this was sufficient to assure that there was no violation of state security. If, in the view of the police, activity contrary to the law went on in that place, they have the means to bring to trial those suspected of such activity. There is no justification for closing the offices with the violation of the freedom of the press and information that this entails -before criminal proceedings are undertaken."
Speaking in the wake of the raid, Lea Tsemel also stressed that the Center has been operating "under licence for three years and its news reports were submitted to the censor-
Vol. 111, No. 4 who heard the initial appeal. His rejoinder was that "90 per cent" were submitted to the censorship, but "10 per cent were not." It remains to be seen what this 10 per cent were. International protests needed
The police also charged that the Center printed material for the PFLP and other "terrorist groups." That is also a very vague charge in view of the fact that the groups supported by most of the Palestinian Zionist authorities.
Eli Aminov told Lili Galili: "The services, and in that we solved technical problem. The left did not have a place where it could do its content and refused to do
We provided printing services to anyone, except Kahane [an ultraright Zionist organizer of attacks on Palestinians] of course."
Such a violent attack on normal news gathering and civil-rights activity has not only created a sensation in Israel. It is sending shock waves internationally among journalists, democrats and defenders of human rights. A growing list of internationally known personalities have signed a protest against the closing of the Center and the jailing of Warschawsky.
Signers now include Yves Jouffa, president of the French Ligue des droits de l'homme; Didier Motchane, French SP Euro MP; Erwin Lanc, former Austrian minister of foreign affairs; Michael Ferris and Michael Lanegan, members of the Irish Senate; former Danish minister for justice, Ole Espersen; foreign affairs spokesperson for the Social Democratic opposition in the Danish parliament, Lasse Budtz; British Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn; and several members of the Mexican, Italian and Danish ship." She made this argument to
..and here is parliaments
The Danish Journalists Union also sent a protest to the Israeli minister for justice on March 5, declaring, among other things, "We protest this attack on the right of expression and the democratic right to gather and disseminate information."
It is important that as many protests as possible be sent to Israeli embassies now to stop the prosecution of Warschawsky from going any further and to allow the Center to resume its work.
Despite the fact that all their equipment was confiscated, the staff of News from Within have managed to get out another issue of their bulletin. But they need all the material help they can get. A fund has been established to help with Warshawsky's defence. Contributions can be sent to "Campaign for the Release of Michel Warschawsky," 2 rue Richard Lenoir. 93108, Montreuil, France. • International Viewpoint 23 March 1987
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
February 24, 1987 the proof of his crime!
FRANCE
Over the last seven to eight years, the CP has lost half of its voters. From an average of 20 per cent of the total vote in 1979, for example, they have declined to 10 per cent