Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Charedi World

8 Kislev 5760 - November 17, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

HOMEPAGE

 

Sponsored by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

Produced and housed by
Jencom

News
Sharp Reaction to Raviv Document

by Yated Ne'eman Staff

"The document uncovers a conspiracy between the state attorney and the GSS" to blacken the reputation of the right, said Likud MK Michael Eitan of the controversial document.

Rightist circles are demanding that Supreme Court Justice Dorit Beinish be suspended or suspend herself from her position until it becomes clear whether or not she granted permission to GSS agent Avishai Raviv to incriminate an innocent person in order to continue his activity.

According to some the incriminated person to whom the document is referring is Doron Goldin, who was convicted and sentenced to public service after he admitted that he had received a package from Raviv which contained material for the preparation of explosives, and which he was supposed to transfer to members of The Jewish Idea group in Jerusalem.

The Justice Ministry and the Prosecution have rejected the charges against Beinish and claim that her remarks, which are recorded in the protocol and which appear as if she granted Raviv the permission to incriminate an innocent person, are incorrect.

The Justice Ministry claims that at that time, GSS officials turned to the State Prosecutor urgently and somewhat irregularly, and said that the life of an undercover agent, suspected of collaborating with the GSS, is in danger. In order to clear him of all suspicions, they asked the Prosecutor to approve his commission of an illegal act. According to the Prosecutor Beinish agreed, but stipulated that no one be physically harmed by it, or incriminated. The Justice Ministry claims that in the end, this act was not carried out.

Likud MK Michael Eitan, who has long been demanding that the document be released, said that there is no basis for the claims that Beinish collaborated in the incrimination an innocent person.

However Eitan stressed that the document shows that Raviv complained that the Rightists were beginning to suspect that he was an undercover agent, and then the GSS suggested, with the approval of Beinish, that suspicions be cast on someone else. "The casting of suspicions on an innocent person, endangered that person's life, and this is the a failure of the Prosecutor," MK Eitan said.

The chairman of the Knesset Law Committee MK Amnon Rubinstein, intends to convene his committee in order to discuss the developments which emerge from the Raviv Document.

The Knesset Audit Committee will hold a special session this week on the Avishai Raviv affair. A proposal will be raised for a public investigation of the entire matter, including the functioning of the State Prosecution in this episode.

Atty.-Gen. Rubinstein, who was sharply criticized for the way in which he attempted to prevent the publication of the protocol of a GSS-Prosecution meeting regarding Raviv, will be asked to appear at the session.

The fake initiation rites were broadcast on two separate occasions on Israel TV. After the first airing, Yisrael Medad of Israel Media Watch asked the Israel Broadcasting Authority about the authenticity of the clip.

The latter responded in writing on Nov. 2, 1995 -- two days before Rabin's assassination -- that the segment was "authentic and worthy of journalistic coverage."

The Shamgar Commission later found that "Raviv... received the help of the television in that it broadcast the swearing- in ceremony; [this] was nothing more than a fake, which anyone who was there most certainly noticed."

Despite this, almost three years after IMW began inquiring about the affair, Attorney-General Rubenstein finally decided to close the case against Oren "for lack of evidence."

The veracity of the Raviv-Beinish document, approved last week for publication by the Supreme Court, continues to be the subject of controversy.

According to reporter Yoav Yitzchak, the minutes of the original meeting, on which the protocol is based, are located in the vault of Atty.-Gen. Elyakim Rubenstein.

"Not only that, but the official signature of then-Atty.-Gen. Ben Ya'ir -- attesting that the document is an accurate record of what went on at that meeting -- appears on the official copy of the protocol!"


All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.