Police raided the home of Jewish terror suspect Chaim Perlman's parents in the Judean Jewish community of Tekoa early on Friday morning, conducting an extensive surprise search that would be expected procedure for police except that Perlman's friends say the presence of the Shin Bet (ISA) indicates panic over Perlman's disclosures.
Accusations that Perlman murdered two Arabs in Jerusalem and attempted to murder others led to the exposure of Shin Bet incitement. In tapes released Thursday and posted on Arutz Sheva's Hebrew page, a Shin Bet agent can be heard encouraging Perlman to murder Islamic Movement head Sheikh Raed Salah and to carry out “a small fireworks display” in an Arab village. Perlman rejected both suggestions.
The agent also told Perlman that he would have killed activists aboard the flotilla ship Mavi Marmara, one of whom was MK Hanin Zouabi, and that he would be willing to sit in prison in order to "get" MK Taleb A-Sana.
The tapes seem to prove that the Shin Bet went beyond attempts to get Perlman to talk about himself, crossing into incitement to murder, sources close to Perlman said. Friends also accused the Shin Bet of taking advantage of Perlman's tenuous financial position by paying him money at each meeting, creating a situation in which he became dependent on his meetings with Shin Bet agents and told them what they wanted to hear.
Perlman denies the accusations of murder and attempted murder. .
Gilad Pollak, a friend of Perlman's, said it was clear before the affair broke that Perlman was facing some sort of personal crisis. “He had trouble looking us in the eyes,” he recalled. Pollak said Perlman told a friend, “Given my financial situation, I would even confess to murdering Arlozorov,” a reference to pre-state Zionist leader Chaim Arlozorov, who was assassinated in 1933.
The Shin Bet's Jewish affairs branch, seeks out Israeli Jewish extremists and terrorist cells, but has been criticized for alleged encouragement of extremist behavior through provocateurs.