Argument: It is right that illegal acts by the state be exposed

Anat Kamm was correct when she said “I kept thinking that history tends to forgive people who expose war crimes.” [1]

Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh was documented as saying “This is an arrest operation… 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.” [2] As attorney Michael Sfard states "In other words, the use of words referring to arrest when in fact there is no real intention of carrying out an arrest, but the reference is to assassination." [3] This was despite a supreme court ruling in 2006 that militants must be detained. [4] Kamm may be incorrect when considering this action a war crime as Israel was not at war at the time however assassination is clearly illegal under international law. [5]

The press has four roles in a democracy; holding power to account, highlighting issues that need attention, educating citizens, and connecting people to create civil society. [6] In this particular case all of the first three roles were clearly being performed.

[1] Lutvitch, Vered, ‘Kam: History forgives those who expose war crimes’, Ynet News.com, 12 April 2010.

[2] Izenberg, Dan, ‘Stamp of approval from attorney-general’, Jerusalem Post, 13 April 2010.

[3] Blau, Uri, ‘License to kill’, Haaretz, 27 November 2008.

[4] Guarnieri, Mya, ‘The killing of Zuhair al-Qaissi exposes Israel’s attitude to its supreme court’, guardian.co.uk, 14 March 2012.

[5] Wachtel, Howard A., ‘Targeting Osama Bin Ladin: Examining the Legality of Assassination as a tool of U.S. Foreign Policy’, Duke Law Journal, Vol.55, No.677, 2005, p.677.

[6] Hume, Ellen, ‘Freedom of the Press’, Issues of Democracy, December 2005.

Candidate 1: "Yes the military has to be accountable but this does not mean that it is directly accountable to the people. Instead the military is accountable to the civilian leadership of the country who is then in turn accountable to the people. The people designate their politicians; their head of state and government as well as minister of defence to control the most senior members of the military. [1] This means that while the military must be transparent it is only necessary for it to be transparent to the civilian government which is at the top of the chain of command not to the people as a whole.

[1] Feaver, Peter D., Armed Servants Agency, Oversight, and Civil-Military Relations, Harvard University Press, 2005, p.5."
Candidate 2: "While it may be a journalist’s job and duty to call the government to account this is not the duty of a soldier who is supposed to be following orders. The soldier’s duty in such a situation would have been to report up the chain of command. As the Judge in the case concluded: "There is no need to steal thousands of classified documents in order to bring 'aspects of IDF operations to the public's attention,' or investigate 'war crimes.' Any independent body given those documents, even by someone like the defendant, has no (security) clearance to afford it the review of such military secrets… There was also no need to give a reporter thousands of sensitive documents without discretion." [1]

[1] Lutvitch, Vered, ‘Kam: History forgives those who expose war crimes’, Ynet News.com, 12 April 2010."
Candidate 3: "What exactly is the public interest? It is difficult to define in law as Britain is finding in its enquiry into phone hacking, [1] and individuals disagree. [2] Journalists in particular are likely to be much happier about the idea than the rest of the public because it defends their interest to have a broad interpretation. It should not have been up to either Kamm or Haaretz to define what the public interest is. There are some things that have to be left to the state.

[1] Sabbagh, Dan, ‘Clarification of the ‘public interest’ defence is badly needed’, guardian.co.uk, 8 April 2012.

[2] Elliott, Chris, ‘What do you think ‘public interest’ means?’, guardian.co.uk, 15 May 2012."

While it may be a journalist’s job and duty to call the government to account this is not the duty of a soldier who is supposed to be following orders. The soldier’s duty in such a situation would have been to report up the chain of command. As the Judge in the case concluded: "There is no need to steal thousands of classified documents in order to bring 'aspects of IDF operations to the public's attention,' or investigate 'war crimes.' Any independent body given those documents, even by someone like the defendant, has no (security) clearance to afford it the review of such military secrets… There was also no need to give a reporter thousands of sensitive documents without discretion." [1]

[1] Lutvitch, Vered, ‘Kam: History forgives those who expose war crimes’, Ynet News.com, 12 April 2010.
