No West Bank Cover-up

Right-wingers in the Israeli government are urging that journalists be banned from observing the Palestinian rebellion in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank, and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir says that he won’t rule out such a contingency. The disturbing possibility thus emerges that a story of primary domestic and world concern could be subjected to a news blackout, leaving Israelis and foreigners alike with only a government version of events. Should that occur, Israel’s proud claim to be the Middle East’s most open and only democratic society would suffer further erosion.

Behind the proposal to prevent independent news coverage is the contention that by their very presence journalists serve to incite Arab rioting. No doubt incidents sometimes are staged primarily with a view toward reaping publicity. It is absurd, though, to suggest that were it not for the presence of the press the Palestinians would be quiet, conciliatory and cooperative. The explosion of anger and frustration within the Palestinian community after more than 20 years of Israeli occupation was destined to occur whether or not journalists were there to record its consequences.

What clearly most bothers Israeli critics of the press is the news coverage that has exposed the sometimes brutal behavior of Israeli troops, including--directly contrary to standing orders--beatings and worse that have been inflicted on bound captives. These outrages, it is worth emphasizing, have taken place with reporters and TV cameras on the scene. It is chilling to think what might go on if reporters and cameras were banned.

To be sure, Israel could emulate its neighbors and try to keep hidden what it finds to be politically and morally embarrassing. After all, when the Syrian regime murdered 20,000 of its citizens in the town of Hama in 1982, it did not invite the world press to record the scene. When Saudi Arabia bloodily suppressed a fundamentalist revolt in Mecca in 1979, it did not throw open its borders to foreign reporters. When Jordan crushed a Palestinian revolt in 1970 at a cost of 10,000 lives, it did not go out of its way to encourage objective news coverage of its activities.

Israel, of course, is not Syria, or Saudi Arabia, or Jordan. It is a troubled nation facing a severe challenge to live up to its democratic ideals. But essential to any democracy is the right of the people to know what their government is doing. Some Israeli officials argue that this right should now be circumscribed. If their view prevails, Israeli democracy could lose something that it might not easily be able to recover.