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by Max Fisher
You might have heard something about the “Prisoner X” story, a
complicated scandal, stretching from Israel to Australia, that involves
espionage, a mysterious death and press censorship. Here, to help you
follow the story and grasp why it matters, is a basic recap and primer.
First, a disclaimer: Much of the world’s understanding of this story comes from a single source: a just-out report by the Australian Broadcasting Corp., which has itself become part of the story. I’ve tried to indicate where the ABC report is the only source.
A simple timeline of what happened
Sometime around 2000, according to ABC, an Australian man named Ben
Zygier emigrated to Israel and changed his name to Ben Alon. ABC also
says that Zygier/Alon worked for Israel’s spy service, Mossad.
In 2010, Israeli officials arrested Zygier/Alon and placed him in
solitary confinement in Ayalon Prison. The ABC report says that he was
housed in a special, single-cell “prison-within-a-prison” that was built
to accommodate Yigal Amir, the man who assassinated Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. That December, Zygier/Alon hanged
himself in his cell.
An Israeli news outlet, Ynet News, reported the man’s death at the
time, but was not able to identify him. The man thus became known as
“Prisoner X.” The Israeli government issued a gag order
forcing Ynet to remove the story. The gag also prohibited Israeli media
from covering the death, the conditions in the prison or even the gag
order itself.
On Tuesday, ABC released its report, which identifies Prisoner X as
Ben Zygier/Alon and says he was a Mossad agent. Australia’s foreign
minister ordered a formal investigation into the incident the next day. Also Wednesday, Israel lifted its ban on the ABC report.
Why it matters: (1) Debate over Israeli censorship
Debate has exploded within Israel
over both the state’s handling of Prisoner X and its strict censorship.
On Tuesday, members of the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset,
peppered Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman with questions, some of them
clearly reflecting exasperation. “I cannot answer these questions
because the matter does not fall under the authority of the justice
minister,” Neeman responded. “But there is no doubt that if true, the
matter must be looked into.”
Why it matters: (2) Possible damage to Israel-Australia ties
The Prisoner X controversy could be considered a microcosmic example
of the Netanyahu government’s emphasis on security over diplomacy. The
story, which has apparently taken the Australian government itself by
surprise, risks damaging Israel’s relationship with Australia. That’s
not exactly an existential threat to Israel except that the country’s
international support, particularly among Western nations, has been gradually eroding. Australia abstained from a November 2012 United Nations vote, on upgrading Palestine’s member status, that Israel opposed.
The New York Times’s Robert Mackey writes,
“Relations between Israel and several other nations became strained in
early 2010 when it emerged that ‘Mossad had used the identities of dual
nationals living in Israel, including four Australians,’ on forged passports used by suspects in the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai.”
In early 2010, the Australian intelligence service began
investigating “at least three dual Australian-Israeli citizens whom it
suspects of using Australian cover to spy for Israel,” according to the Australian newspaper the Age.
Why it matters: (3) Mystery about Prisoner X’s possible crime
It’s not known why Prisoner X, who according to ABC was a member of
Israel’s own spy service, ended up in an Israeli prison. The Israeli
government’s decision to place him in solitary confinement and the gag
order on the media regarding his case certainly suggests he was
suspected of something very serious. But, as a number of Israeli
politicians have pointed out, we don’t know what he was locked up for
because the case against him is secret.
What happens next?
Pressure is building in Israel for the government to explain why it
detained Prisoner X and kept his arrest, imprisonment and death such a
closely guarded secret. This is partly about determining the specifics
of his case but also about delineating the acceptable limits of state
censorship.
Australia is likely to continue to push for more information and perhaps a public accounting of what happened.
It will be interesting to see how the Netanyahu government, which may
be driven closer to the political center after the recent parliamentary
elections, responds to the internal and external pressure. That will
say something about how it balances security, media freedom and
diplomacy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/13/a-basic-guide-to-the-prisoner-x-spy-scandal-shaking-israel-and-australia/