Anat Kamm – Uri Blau affair

Who is Anat Kamm – Uri Blau affair?

The Anat Kamm-Uri Blau affair refers to a leak of thousands of classified Israel Defense Forces documents by the former Israeli soldier Anat Kamm.

During her military service as an assistant in the Central Command bureau Kamm secretly copied thousands of classified documents, including many confidential documents. After she finished her military service Kamm copied the documents to a CD and leaked it to the Israeli Haaretz journalist Uri Blau. On these acts Kamm was later on convicted of espionage and providing confidential information without authorization.

Information from the leak suggested that the military had defied a court ruling against assassinating wanted militants in the West Bank who could potentially be arrested safely.

Facts in the case were subjected to an Israeli gag order. Given that Kamm worked as a gossip journalist dealing with media affairs, the case became well known to journalists, who started reporting on it using indirect descriptions. The gag order was ultimately circumvented and broken from abroad, notably through U.S.-based blogsite Tikun Olam.