Dallas court agrees to protect Israeli officer’s identity

A U.S. federal court agreed to Israel’s request to protect the identity of a military officer who will testify in the trial of alleged Hamas fund-raisers. In May, Judge A. Joe Fish, a federal judge in Dallas, allowed measures that would conceal the identity of a member of the Shin Beth, Israel’s security service, in the trial against five men alleged to have funneled funds raised by the Holy Land Foundation to Hamas, the Palestinian designated as terrorist under U.S. law. That decision has a precedent in a similar case in Chicago last year. However, in the same ruling Fish said the same protections would not be extended to an officer of Israel’s military intelligence. Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, sent a statement to the court last week appealing that decision, saying that revealing the officer’s identity could harm Israel’s security. The New York Sun reported this week that Fish reversed his decision and will allow the military intelligence officer to conceal his identity.