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Haaretz Journalist Indicted

Uri Blau faces up to seven years in prison for having classified IDF documents

by
Stephanie Butnick
May 30, 2012
Uri Blau.(Haaretz)
Uri Blau.(Haaretz)

Uri Blau, an investigative reporter for Haaretz, will be indicted on charges of possessing classified IDF documents given to him by a former soldier. Haaretz reports:

According to a press release by the State Prosecutor’s Office, Blau was in possession of thousands of military and top-secret documents, which were stolen from the IDF by Anat Kamm, an Israeli woman who was convicted in February of collecting, holding and passing on classified information without authorization.



Although the charges include the terms “severe espionage,” Blau is not charged with an espionage offense.

Yossi Melman profiled Kamm—currently serving a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence—in April 2010:

Kamm’s motive, colleagues say, was to expose the IDF’s egregious violation of Israeli law, clear evidence of which was in her dossier. Of its 2,000 documents, 700 were classified as “top secret” and only a handful were used by Haaretz. But sources familiar with the case say the most damning of them were used in Blau’s reporting.

Uri Blau to face aggravated espionage charge [Jerusalem Post]
Related: The Source [Tablet Magazine]

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.