Too much discussion of Israel’s intelligence activities could severely harm
state security, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday in his first
public comments on the puzzling “Prisoner X” Affair.
Referring to the
case of Ben Zygier – the Australian immigrant and alleged Mossad operative who
committed suicide two years ago in an Israeli jail cell – Netanyahu said at the
weekly cabinet meeting that he had “complete trust” in both the country’s
security services and the “completely independent” legal authorities who
supervise it.
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“With this combination of maintaining security and
maintaining the law, we will also maintain freedom of expression,” Netanyahu
said.
“However, the over-exposure of security and intelligence activity
could harm, sometimes severely, state security. Therefore, in any discussion,
the security interest cannot be made light of, and in the reality in which the
State of Israel lives, this must be a main interest.”
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Israel’s situation,
Netanyahu said, was unique in the world.
“We are an exemplary democracy
and maintain the rights of those under investigation and individual rights no
less than any other country,” he said.
“However, we are more threatened
and face more challenges; therefore, we must maintain proper activity of our
security agencies.”
Netanyahu called for everyone to “let the security
forces do their work quietly so that we can continue to live in security and
tranquility in Israel.”
The story continued to make waves in Australia on
Sunday, with Foreign Minister Bob Carr saying that a report on the Zygier case
that he ordered from his ministry will “canvass all the consular contact between
Australia and between Israel, and contact between the security
agencies.
And we have asked the Israeli government for a contribution to
that report.”
Carr said he wanted to give Israel an “opportunity to
submit to us an explanation of how this tragic death came
about.”
Australian former prime minister Kevin Rudd, engaged in a bitter
rivalry with current Prime Minister Julia Gillard, demanded that the government
be “robust” with Israel over the matter. Rudd was prime minister when Zygier was
arrested.
Israeli officials expressed concern last week that this issue
would play into the current Australian election campaign. Elections are to be
held there in September.
The intelligence subcommittee of the Knesset
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, meanwhile, announced that it would hold
“an intensive inquiry into all aspects of the affair.”
Bayit Yehudi MK
Uri Ariel called for the establishment of a committee of inquiry.
In a
related development, Channel 2 reported that negotiations over a plea bargain
with Zygier were in the advanced stages when he was found dead in his
cell.
The report said that attorney Avigdor Feldman, who last week said
Zygier was interested in proving his innocence in court, met him to give his
father a second opinion regarding whether he should sign the
agreement.
The report quoted a security official as saying that Israel
was willing to agree to a “one-digit prison sentence” if Zygier would assist the
investigators in “repairing the damage” and also commit to “shutting his mouth.”