Price Tag demonstration (archive)
Price Tag demonstration (archive)Israel news photo: Flash 90

A well-known Jewish nationalist activist from the town of Esh Kodesh in Binyamin has revealed that he is an agent with the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, Channel 10 reports.

The Shin Bet deals primarily with preventing terrorism, but is known to spy on Jewish nationalists suspected of violence or vandalism targeting Palestinian Authority Arabs as well.

The Esh Kodesh man reportedly gathered his friends and admitted to them that he had been working with the Shin Bet for some time, and had passed on much information on anti-Arab activity to the agency, including information that helped the group to thwart attacks.

The man himself was complicit in several of the attacks he reported.

A source told Arutz Sheva that another well-known Jewish nationalist working in Judea and Samaria (Shomron), who has been interviewed by the media, is working with the Shin Bet as well.

It was recently revealed that the Shin Bet sometimes has female employees tempt married Jewish nationalist men into betraying their wives, then uses evidence of the betrayal to blackmail the men into providing information.

The Shin Bet has been criticized in the past over its informants’ participation in extremist political activity. The most notorious case was that of Avishai Raviv, a former undercover agent who befriended Yigal Amir, who went on to murder then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Raviv had shown vocal support for extreme right-wing views, including hatred of Rabin. Following the assassination there were complaints that he had crossed the line from pretending to be a nationalist to keep his cover intact, to active incitement to violence. He later faced criminal charges for his activities. He was found not guilty, but was criticized by the court for having displayed "dangerous and troublesome behaviors."