APPROVAL IS CITED IN SHIN BETH CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302120014-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: July 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302120014-2
ARTICLE APPEA
ON PAGE
APPROVAL IS CITED
IN SHIN BETH CASE
/3 By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Special to no My York new
JERUSALEM, June 30 ? Tile foi.
mer head of Shin Beth, Israel's
domes-
tic intellizence service, ctsiturzi tor
the first time today that
ap-
proval from his political superiors r
his actions in the cartwo captured
Palestinian big hijackerswho were
beaten to death in 1r.
The political superiors he referred to
are believed to include the Foreign
Minister, Yitzhak Shrunk of the Likud
bloc, who was Prime Minister at the
time of the incident.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shimon
Peres, who leads the Labor Party, said
he would welcome a full investigation
of the conduct of ranking political offi-
cials in the case.
Law enforcement officals had ac-
cused the Shin Beth head, Avraham
Shalom, of ordering the deaths of the
two Palestinians and of organizing a
cover-up. Mr. Shalom resigned last
week in exchange for immimity from
prosecution.
Peres Addresses Parliament
Mr. Peres spoke in a 45-minute ad-
dress to Parliament in which he ex-
plained his actions regarding the Shin
Beth scandal and, in effect, challenged
Foreign Minister Shamir to do the
same. Mr. Shamir is scheduled to
switch jobs with Prime Minister Peres
In October under an agreement be-
tween Labor and Likud.
"I, as a member of the political eche-
lon, have nothing to hide and I am pre-
pared to be investigted by a legal com-
mission," Mr. Peres said. "I don't
want to walk around with any question
marks on my head."
e P 91
Mr. Shalom's statement implicating
unnamed superiors was contained in a
brief filed today by Attorney General
Yosef Harish in a hearing before the Is-
raeli Supreme Court. The court is con-
sidering five requests to nullify Presi-
dent Chaim Herzog's action in granting
Mr. Shalom and three of his deputies
immunity from prosecution in the case.
No decision was handed down.
'With Permission and Authority'
The former head of Shin Beth said
that all his actions relating to the April
1984 bus hijacking and subsequent in-
vestigations "were done with permis-
sion and authority in order to preserve
the security of the state and prevent the
disclosure of its most guarded se-
crete."
NEW YORK TIMES
1 July 1936
Mr. Shalom's statement was con-
tained in his appeal to the President for
amnesty and it became public in an ap-
pendix to Attorney General Harish's
brief defending the President's action.
In the amnesty request, Mr. Shalom
Asked the President for immunity from
prosecution for "killing people, suborn-
ing witnesses and the disruption of
legal procedures." The Israeli radio
noted, however, that Mr. Shalom did
not directly admit to having committed
those crimes.
Nonetheless, it was the first confirm-
ation by Mr. Shalom of persistent re-
ports in the Israeli press that his ac-
tions in the case, in which he has been
accused of covering up a Shin Beth role
in killing the two hijackers, were taken
with the approval of higher political as.
thority.
Mr. Shalom, like all Shin Beth chiefs,
reported directly and exclusively to the
Prime Minister, who was his onir
en-
perlor. Mr. Shamir was Prime
ter when the hijackers were killed and
the reported cover-up began.
In his address to Parliament, Mr.
Peres sought to explain the logic and
legality of his actions regarding the
scandal. He told reporters again today
that his "conscience is clean,' but he I
declined to go into specifics, citing na-
tional security considerations.
Since Mr. Shalom and three subordi-
nates have received amnesty and Mr.
Shalom has resigned the current de-
bate between Labor resigned,
Likud is only
about whether a new investigation, into
the behavior of political figures, should
be ordered.
Labor argues that if the Shin Beth
chief had to resign for misdeeds, but
had approval from political superiors
for what he did, then his superiors
should also be held accountable. Likud
argues that any further investigation
would only expose more of Shin Beth's
secret workings and demoralize the
agency. Likud contends that Mr. Peres
and his colleagues want an investiga-
tion only in order to upset the power-
sharing agreement between Mr. Peres
and Mr.
Three Commissions of Inquiry
Mr. Peres, in his Parliament speech,
which was made in response to five un-
successful motions of no-confidence,
recounted the history of the Shin Beth
affair. He began by noting that after
the two captured hijackers, the cousins
Majdi and Subhi Abu-Jumaa, were
killed, the Government set up three
commissions of inquiry to determine
how they had died.
All had been established and one had
completed its work when Mr. Peres be-
came Prime Minister in September
1984. Assertions that Shin Beth
tampered with evidence and with wit-
nesses centered on its appearances be-
fore two Government commissions,
and before an internal Shin Beth inves-
tigation conducted while Mr. Peres
was in office.
"The whole story was in legal pro-
ceedings at the time I became Prime
Minister," Mr. Peres said. He added
that Mr. Shamir did not brief him about
Shin Beth's handing of the inquiries.
'I Had Ne Idea'
"When I came into office I did not
think I had the right, or the duty, to look
Into affairs that were handled before,"
Mr. Peres said. "I think it is unhealthy
of a Prime Minister to meddle into the
affairs of his predecessors. I had no
Idea about what happened from a legal
point of view. I had no idea of prima
fade suspicions that false testimony
was being given."
Mr. Peres said he first discovered
that something might be amiss on Oct.
, 29, 1985, when Reuven Hazak, the
I
deputy chief of Shin Beth, came to see
him at a time when his superior, Mr.
Shalom, was out of the country on a
five-week vacation.
"Reuven Hazak told me that he had
some doubts about what happened in
the bus affair," Mr. Peres said. "He
told me that there were some misdeeds
In the bus affair and after it. The con-
versation was very short."
Mr. Peres said he asked Mr. Hazak:
"Why did you just remember today? If
wrongs were done, why didn't you pre-
vent it a long time ago?"
After considering Mr. Hazak's infor-
mation for a week, Mr. Peres said he
decided that he had no reason to doubt
Mr. Shalom's credibility. Given the
clear conflict between Mr. Rezak and
his superior, Mr. Peres suggested that
Mr. Rezak should leave the service,
which he did.
Mr. Peres made clear, however, that
for three and a half months, he appar-
ently told no one about Mr. Hazak's as-
sertions concerning Mr. Shalom, ap-
parently because he felt the matter had
been fully investigated by the Govern-
ment commissions.
This was seen as the most sensitive
point in Mr. Peres's account because it
meant, in effect, that he was aware
that serious crimes might have been
committed and did nothing about it.
, However, the Attorney General at
the time, Yitzhak Zamir, found out on
his own and amassed a file of evidence,
primarily by interviewing Mr. Hazak
Iand two other senior Shin Beth offi-
cials.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302120014-2