The Anat Kamm–Uri Blau affair refers to a leak of thousands of classified Israel Defense Forces (IDF) documents by the former Israeli soldier Anat Kamm.
During her military service as an assistant in the Central Command bureau, Kamm secretly copied thousands of classified documents, including many confidential documents. After she finished her military service, Kamm copied the documents to a CD and leaked it to the Israeli Haaretz journalist Uri Blau. For these acts, Kamm was later convicted of espionage and of providing confidential information without authorization.
Information from the leak suggested that the military had defied a ruling by the Supreme Court of Israel against assassinating wanted militants in the West Bank who could potentially be arrested safely.
Facts in the case were subjected to an Israeli gag order. Given that Kamm worked as a gossip journalist dealing with media affairs, the case became well known to journalists, who started reporting on it using indirect descriptions. The gag order was ultimately circumvented and broken from abroad, notably through U.S.-based blogsite Tikun Olam.
According to the indictment, Kamm illegally copied over 2,000 classified documents during her military service at the IDF. Israeli law enforcement sources said the documents include "operational military information, security and situation assessments, meetings' minutes and protocols, highly sensitive intelligence information, orders of deployment and battle, drill briefings, and warfare doctrines for the West Bank". Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said that the case "had the potential to cause grave damage to state security", and defined the documents as "the kind that any intelligence agency would be delighted to get its hands on".
People involved in the affair
Anat Kamm
Anat Kamm or Anat Kam (, born 1987) is an Israeli journalist.
Kamm was born in 1987 in Jerusalem. She studied at the Hebrew University Secondary School. In her youth, she wrote for the local newspaper Jerusalem (now Yediot Jerusalem) and for the youth channel of the Israeli website Walla!.
In 2005, Kamm began her military service in the Israeli Defence Forces. In July 2005, she was assigned to work as a clerk in the office of the commander of the Israeli Central Command. In January 2006, she began her training at an officer's course, but was eventually eliminated and afterwards was assigned to work as an assistant in the office of the commander of Israeli Central Command, Major General Yair Naveh.
After she finished her military service, she studied for a bachelor's degree in History and Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. In August 2007, she worked as a reporter for Walla!, an internet news portal then owned by the Bezeq and Haaretz groups. She was employed there until 10 March 2010, when she announced a leave of absence.
Uri Blau
Uri Blau (, born 1977) is an Israeli writer and journalist and currently an investigative reporter for the Haaretz newspaper, specializing in military affairs.
Details of the leak
In 2008, Blau published a report based on these documents, which said that the IDF senior command planned and executed targeted killings of three people, in violation of an earlier 2006 ruling of the Israeli Supreme Court limiting the circumstances in which such a tactic could be used.
"This is an arrest operation," the document said, attributing the quote to Naveh. "But in case [the soldiers] identify one of the senior leaders of the Islamic Jihad, Walid Obeid, Ziad Malaisha, Adham Yunis, they have permission to open fire in accordance with their appraisal of the situation during the operation."
The Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi was angered by the leak of highly classified documents, and ordered an investigation about its source.
Following a petition for investigation by two Israeli leading human rights attorneys, the Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz responded in a letter challenging the allegations made by Blau:
Regarding the killing of Malaisha, Mazuz wrote, "The IDF operation met all the conditions laid down in the [Supreme Court targeted killing ruling]. The attack took place after the possibility of arresting the fugitives was ruled out as being impossible to achieve under the circumstances and after it was made clear to the soldiers that arrest was the first preference."