Lisa Goldman, Haaretz, December 14:
During the second week of November, I was interrogated, “under caution,” by the International and Serious Crimes Unit (ISCU) of the Israel Police. Four months after I had reported about my trips to Lebanon for Channel 10 TV news and “Time Out Tel Aviv,” I was being accused of endangering Israeli security.
I was accused of violating the Law to Prevent Infiltration, a 1954 regulation intended to prevent infiltration from Arab states. I had never heard of the law, which was later amended to forbid Israeli citizens from traveling to enemy states; nor had any of my Israeli friends and colleagues - although many of them have traveled to enemy countries on their foreign passports, as I did using my Canadian passport. The police told me I could face a four-year jail sentence if convicted.
According to the Foreign Press Association, at least a dozen Israeli journalists have traveled to enemy states on their alternate passports over the past six months alone. The truth is that thousands of Israeli citizens have been violating this law with impunity for years, with the full knowledge of the authorities.
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