Dangerous Deception

Last month a 17-year-old Arab boy was seized by Israeli security agents on the West Bank and charged with throwing fire bombs. Israeli officials concede that the youth is in jail, but they won’t say how he got there.

ABC News thinks that it knows. It says that the agents entered the youth’s village posing as ABC journalists and in that guise lured him away for a supposed interview. The prime minister’s office in Israel has responded to ABC’s strong protest about this alleged impersonation by saying that it will look into the matter.

That shouldn’t take long or prove difficult. Shin Bet, the domestic security service, is directly accountable to the prime minister. One question, one demand to know the truth of the matter, could clear things up. The Israeli newspaper that broke the story says that ABC’s allegation is supported by Arab villagers who witnessed the event. The government’s inability or refusal to say how the youth came to be arrested--something that could hardly rank as a state secret--strongly suggests a factual basis to the charge by ABC.

If security agents are in fact masquerading as newsmen to carry out arrests or intelligence activities, then they are jeopardizing both the reputation and the safety of all legitimate journalists --Israelis and foreigners alike--who are covering the West Bank. That of course is probably of no concern to Shin Bet or to Israeli right-wingers who despise the press for reporting a story that is often embarrassing to Israel. Indeed, the chance that Palestinians might shun or attack journalists because their authenticity has now been made suspect no doubt delights the press-haters.

But other Israelis who place a higher value on protecting their nation’s democracy ought to be deeply concerned. Whenever the press in Israel, foreign or domestic, is inhibited in covering a story of such fundamental importance, then Israel’s democratic claims are inevitably diminished. A word from Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to Shin Bet could put a stop to such behavior--assuming that the prime minister wants it stopped.