Son of Senior Israeli officer granted gag order in death threat case

Tuesday November 22, 2011 08:45 by Saed Bannoura - 1 of International Middle East Media Center Editorial Group

An Israeli man whose father is a senior officer in the Shin Bet (secret service) was charged with issuing a death threat against members of an Israeli peace group. When the accused was brought before a judge, he requested a ‘gag order’ be issued in the case, preventing the peace group from engaging in further contact with the media about the incident.

Death threat graffiti on peace activists' apartment building (image from Richard Silverstein)

The father of the accused was also present in the courtroom at the time of the arraignment, and shouted at journalists, “Do you know who I am?”, and told the journalists that they would be imprisoned if they revealed his son’s identity, then reiterated to the judge his son’s request for a gag order on the media. The judge granted the request, and the media have been prevented from reporting the suspect’s name or details on the incident.

The incident in question involves death threats phoned in to the office of the Israeli peace group ‘Peace Now’, which advocates for a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, and an end to the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land.

In addition to the death threat by phone, another incident took place in the same time period in which death threats were spraypainted on the apartment and neighbor’s car of Israeli peace activist Hagit Ofran. No arrests have been made in that case.

Although the accused has not been named due to the gag order, multiple journalists including Richard Silverstein have verified the courtroom proceedings and stated that the father of the accused is a senior Israeli intelligence officer, and his mother is an Israeli police officer.

israel | israeli politics | news report saed at imemc dot org