Amira Haas reports on the Israeli Secret Service, Shin Bet, targeting a variety of Israeli activists who support Palestinian rights, including 22-year-old Matan Cohen. He has quite a resumé: co-founder of Anarchists Against the Wall, an organizer of Hampshire College’s divestment measure, and one of the Young Jewish Proud protesters who disrupted Netanyahu’s speech. From the article:
Cohen: “Was it you who decided to detain me?”
Policeman: “No, security elements did.”
Cohen: “Meaning the Shin Bet security service?”
Policeman: “Yes, the Shin Bet’s Jewish department.”
Four more people in civilian clothes examined Cohen’s possessions. It took them two and a half hours.
“We merely were warned that you are suspected of terrorist activity.” . . .
Cohen: “[Am I] a suspect in something?”
Policeman: “You’re not a suspect. You’re suspected.”
Cohen: “Your grammar is amazing.”
Policeman: “It means that they think you’re connected to something but you are not suspected of anything concrete.”
Cohen: “In other words, you can detain me whenever you wish.”
Policeman: “These are the instructions I got from the Shin Bet and the decision is theirs.”
Read “Shin Bet puts Israeli ‘anarchists’ in crosshairs” here.
