Larisa AlexandrovnaSad news from the "only democracy" in the Middle East:

An Israeli journalist has been under secret house arrest since December on charges that she leaked highly sensitive, classified military documents that suggest the Israeli military breached a court order on assassinations in the occupied West Bank.

Anat Kam, 23, goes on trial in two weeks on treason and espionage charges and could face up to 14 years in jail. A court-imposed gagging order, proposed by the state and more recently by the defence, is preventing media coverage of the arrest and charges in Israel.

Kam is reportedly accused of copying military documents while she was a soldier on national service and then passing them to an Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. Kam denies the charges. Her lawyers declined to respond to repeated requests for comment.

A Haaretz journalist, Uri Blau, who has written several stories critical of the Israeli military and who has been linked in internet reports to the case, has left Israel and is now in London, apparently for fear he will be targeted for his reporting. Haaretz and Channel 10, an Israeli television station, will challenge the media gagging order at a hearing on 12 April, two days before Kam's trial is due to start at the Tel Aviv district court.

[snip]

Attention has focused on an investigation Haaretz published on the Israeli military's assassination policy in November 2008, written by Uri Blau and headlined "Licence to Kill". He reported that the military, the Israel Defence Force, had been carrying out assassinations of Palestinian militants in the West Bank in contravention of an Israeli high court ruling, which said efforts should be made first to arrest suspected militants rather than assassinating them.

URGENT ACTION ALERT

Indefinite and secret detention of a journalist is not something that happens in a democracy. I urge you to contact the State Department and demand the US get involved in brokering Kam's freedom:

Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs

Email: nea-ipa@state.gov

Country Desk at State: 202-647-3672

Also contact the Israeli Embassy here

Larisa Alexandrovna is a journalist, essayist, and poet. She has served as the Managing Editor of Investigative News of Raw Story and contributes opinion and columns to online publications such as Alternet. She is also an American blogger, for the Huffington Post and for her own journalism blog, at-Largely. Alexandrovna has had her work referenced in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Newsweek among others.