Israeli Shin Bet (secret services) questions Israeli activists (of the AAtW)
linked to upcoming 'fly-in' protest
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20120412101808131
By Amira Hass
Several Israelis have been questioned at length by the security service in
recent weeks regarding Sunday's planned 'fly-in'; activists' lawyer says
Shin Bet is attempting to deter people from taking part in legal activities.
The Shin Bet security service has interrogated four left-wing Israelis
involved in preparations for Sunday's "fly-in." The activists, members of
Anarchists Against the Wall, said they have been questioned over the past
two to three weeks.
Two of the activists said they were questioned at Ben-Gurion International
Airport upon returning from a trip abroad. Two others received a written
summons to the police station on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv.
The four were questioned by a man who called himself "Shavit" and said he
was chief of the Shin Bet's department in charge of the extreme right and
extreme left.
The activists said they refused to speak to him or answer his questions,
which prompted him to tell them they were under close surveillance. He told
them the Shin Bet knew many details about their private lives, not only
about their activities (which they report about in full on social media).
They said Shavit stressed the meeting was not an interrogation but a
conversation. But when some of them asked if that meant they could leave, he
said no.
Two other activists received summonses by telephone and another received a
written one too late for the scheduled meeting. All seven are also members
of the Anarchists Against The Wall group. Some have been summoned to
interviews with the Shin Bet before.
The activists' attorney, Gaby Lasky, said "the summons is illegal and
outside the Shin Bet's authority. Under the guise of a 'friendly
conversation' the Shin Bet is trying to deter people from taking part in
legal activity with Palestinians."
The Shin Bet said the decision to call in the seven "was made by the power
invested in the service and the duties imposed on it by law, in order to
convey messages designed to thwart illegal activity."
The first activist to be questioned was Lihi Rothschild, 27, a translator,
on her return from London three weeks ago. She said that at the airport in
London she was physically examined and told to undress. Her clothes were
screened and all her possessions inspected, she said.
At Ben-Gurion airport, Rothschild was interrogated for more than three hours
by Shavit, a man who said his name was Reshef and a woman they called Karin,
who kept silent the whole time.
About a week later, on April 2, Kobi Barkan, 35, a mathematics teacher, was
interrogated. He told Haaretz that Shavit "made sure to remind me of the
report Lihi had posted about her interrogation on the leftist website +972."
Shavit mentioned the sexual harassment issue Rothschild had written about.
She wrote "Reshef said I didn't look like an anarchist, while checking my
clothes and commenting on each garment. Shavit warned him it was sexual
harassment. They tried to persuade me to meet for a friendly conversation
over coffee. I continued to remain silent."
Barkan said Shavit mentioned the issue as a way of bringing up the issue of
sexual harrassment in the territories and, in some cases, among the peace
activists. He said that at the end of the 20-minute meeting, Shavit said he
could write about the conversation "anything you like."
Rothschild, in contrast, had been advised to keep the interrogation a
secret, she wrote on +972, saying "that's one motive to publish the story."
Shavit told Rothschild that while her activity was legal, Palestinians whom
she was in touch with could use her to transfer terrorists or bombs to
Israel. He said she must understand the risk and be careful, she said.
He said investigators wanted to understand what drove her to become an
activist and asked if she was active in the "flytilla," flotilla or the
march to Jerusalem, and what happens at the meetings of Anarchists Against
The Wall.
She said they offered her help in obtaining permits for demonstrations or in
passing messages to soldiers in the West Bank about their treatment of the
demonstrators.
Shavit said the Shin Bet sees Rothschild as a leader who could be deemed
responsible for illegal acts other people would commit. The responsibility
issue was brought up in the other activists' interviews as well.
One activist, a 23-year-old student and animation editor, said Shavit told
her "I know you're very active and you should know many new activists see
you as a an example. You [all] are upstage, very dominant and people look at
you and are influenced by you. Be careful."
Shavit telephoned the activist for two weeks, telling her to come in for
questioning, but she refused to go without a written summons.
"He told me he heard about the sexual harassment in the left and said 'it
troubles us very much,'" said the animation editor.
He said the Shin Bet was also troubled by boycotts against Israel and asked
her if she did not think she was endangering herself at the demonstrations.
He warned her of being exploited by people she thought she knew but really
didn't.
Barkan said Shavit kept mentioning names of people he had interrogated
before him. He also mentioned the name of a Palestinian friend who attended
a meeting in Tel Aviv (the meeting was reported on Facebook, with
photographs ). He said the security forces had broken into the Palestinian's
house at night and confiscated his computer and telephone.
He also mentioned the names of French activists organizing the "fly-in." "He
said helping them was borderline legal," Barkan told Haaretz. "Although
these are people who instead of lying are telling the border police the
truth - that they want to visit the West Bank."
Shavit questioned another activist after midnight at the airport, after he
returned from a trip to Paris. The activist, a student, 28, said Shavit
tried to get him to talk for three and a half hours.
From
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/shin-bet-questions-israeli-act
ivists-linked-to-upcoming-fly-in-protest-1.423871
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