The affair began last Wednesday when a student who had been volunteering for the Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) Council said he would like to quit. He was then asked to return the vehicle he had been using to distribute anti-disengagement literature and to hang banners.
Ohad Bart, the council’s logistical director, contacted the volunteer and requested that he return the vehicle. The volunteer gave various reasons why he could not do so, and in the end, Bart agreed to send a Yesha Council employee to pick up the car from the volunteer’s home in Lod.
When the Yesha Council employee spoke with the volunteer a few days before the Purim holiday, the volunteer asked him, “Do you perhaps need grenades for the struggle? I could sell you grenades.” The employee responded that this was not the way the Yesha Council planned to wage the struggle.
The employee relayed the story to Bart, who immediately contacted MK Uri Ariel. The two became suspicious that the entire affair was a frame-up. They feared that once they picked up the vehicle from the “agent provocateur,” they would be stopped by police and grenades would suddenly be “found” hidden in the car – resulting in an “expose” of Yesha Council involvement in violence and illegal activity.
Bart and the Yesha Council worker decided to call the police instead of picking up the vehicle themselves, and asked that they arrest the volunteer/provocateur.
The police then made a strange request of the two Council workers. They asked them to go to the volunteer’s house “with an undercover officer disguised as a settler.” They instructed them to tell the volunteer that they were, in fact, interested in procuring explosives, and buy them – in order to catch him in the act.
Bart, familiar with the Shabak (GSS) tactic of using agents-provocateur to delegitimize the right-wing, immediately refused, suspecting the police would then arrest everyone on charges of buying explosives. He told the police to go alone, saying he would come afterward to recover the Yesha Council’s vehicle.
When the two men arrived to collect the vehicle, police refused to inform them whether the volunteer was in fact arrested or not, and whether grenades were found in the car. It was later announced, however, that the police arrested the "volunteer," as well as two brothers from whom he attempted to procure grenades. A lawyer for the brothers said they have absolutely nothing to do with the incident.
When Yesha Council spokesman Emily Amrusi called a press conference to expose the story to the media, police slapped a gag order on the entire episode.
Yesha Council member Bentzy Lieberman took the initiative of publishing the name of the volunteer, and wrote a letter asking that security forces refrain from “planting provocateurs like Avishai Raviv.”
Raviv was the Shabak agent responsible for a filmed fictional "Jewish terrorist" swearing-in ceremony, as well as the distribution of "incitement" posters prior to the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. Raviv also sent out a beeper message to reporters minutes after Rabin was reported shot, reading, “We missed this time, but next time we won’t.”
Ohad Bart, the council’s logistical director, contacted the volunteer and requested that he return the vehicle. The volunteer gave various reasons why he could not do so, and in the end, Bart agreed to send a Yesha Council employee to pick up the car from the volunteer’s home in Lod.
When the Yesha Council employee spoke with the volunteer a few days before the Purim holiday, the volunteer asked him, “Do you perhaps need grenades for the struggle? I could sell you grenades.” The employee responded that this was not the way the Yesha Council planned to wage the struggle.
The employee relayed the story to Bart, who immediately contacted MK Uri Ariel. The two became suspicious that the entire affair was a frame-up. They feared that once they picked up the vehicle from the “agent provocateur,” they would be stopped by police and grenades would suddenly be “found” hidden in the car – resulting in an “expose” of Yesha Council involvement in violence and illegal activity.
Bart and the Yesha Council worker decided to call the police instead of picking up the vehicle themselves, and asked that they arrest the volunteer/provocateur.
The police then made a strange request of the two Council workers. They asked them to go to the volunteer’s house “with an undercover officer disguised as a settler.” They instructed them to tell the volunteer that they were, in fact, interested in procuring explosives, and buy them – in order to catch him in the act.
Bart, familiar with the Shabak (GSS) tactic of using agents-provocateur to delegitimize the right-wing, immediately refused, suspecting the police would then arrest everyone on charges of buying explosives. He told the police to go alone, saying he would come afterward to recover the Yesha Council’s vehicle.
When the two men arrived to collect the vehicle, police refused to inform them whether the volunteer was in fact arrested or not, and whether grenades were found in the car. It was later announced, however, that the police arrested the "volunteer," as well as two brothers from whom he attempted to procure grenades. A lawyer for the brothers said they have absolutely nothing to do with the incident.
When Yesha Council spokesman Emily Amrusi called a press conference to expose the story to the media, police slapped a gag order on the entire episode.
Yesha Council member Bentzy Lieberman took the initiative of publishing the name of the volunteer, and wrote a letter asking that security forces refrain from “planting provocateurs like Avishai Raviv.”
Raviv was the Shabak agent responsible for a filmed fictional "Jewish terrorist" swearing-in ceremony, as well as the distribution of "incitement" posters prior to the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. Raviv also sent out a beeper message to reporters minutes after Rabin was reported shot, reading, “We missed this time, but next time we won’t.”