תמלול הכתבה: תיקון עולם – פרשת האסיר X
Prisoner X was Mossad Agent, Ben Zygier
Back in 2010, I reported in Tikun Olam that Israel had arrested an unidentified individual, and imprisoned him in total secrecy in an Israeli jail. He was essentially disappeared. The cell he occupied had once housed the assassin, Yigal Amir. Even his jailers didn't know who the new detainee was. They weren’t even allowed any contact him. The man was essentially sealed off from the world.
They apparently did a lousy job of monitoring Prisoner X, as he was called, and he hung himself from a bar in his cell. In December 2010, Australian Jewish media reported that a Ben Zygier had died in Israel and was to be buried in Melbourne's Jewish cemetery. There was little spoken about the cause of death.
Now Australia's ABC network blows open the story. Prisoner X was a Mossad agent named Ben Zygier, age 34 with two small children and an Israeli wife. Yossi Melman, reporting in Walla, says no one knows why he was imprisoned, but that it must have involved a crime that endangered the existence of the State of Israel. That's a pretty hefty sentence even for security-obsessed Israel. This has to mean he was involved in an act considered treason. It might possibly involve selling secrets to an enemy power. Jonathan Pollard comes to mind in the U.S. context.
The ABC report makes clear that Zygier was essentially disappeared by security forces. This is common for Palestinians charged with security offenses, but extraordinary for an Israeli Jew. One of the few previous incidents that is comparable is the disappearance and secret imprisonment of KGB spy, Marcus Klingberg, by Israel for over ten years. Clearly, Zygier did something akin to the "crimes" of which Klingberg was accused.
The ABC report says that Zygier also used his Australian passport in the process of his espionage efforts. This report says that he also had an Australian passport in the name of "Ben Allen." As Australian foreign minister Bob Carr noted, this would violate numerous Australian laws. It also brings to mind the Mahmoud al-Mabouh case in which Australian passports of Australian-Israeli citizens were used by the Mossad to create false passports for Israeli agents who assassinated the Hamas weapons merchant. This incident caused an enormous amount of embarrassment for Israel among all the western governments whose citizens were exploited.
Ben Zygier was the son of Geoffrey Zygier, the executive director of the Victoria Jewish Community Council and one of the leaders of the Melbourne Jewish Community. The family and the deceased's friends all refused to cooperate with the ABC broadcast as did Israeli reporters who were approached
The case raises extraordinary questions for the Australian government. What did it know about this when it happened? Given that Zygier was likely an undercover spy, it would appear Australia was limited in what it could do. But how often do you have a country's citizen imprisoned in secret in another country only to commit suicide there? This just begs 1,000 questions in terms of what the Kevin Rudd government knew and when it knew it.
The case will also drive further wedges between Australia and Israel in that it will show that the Mossad continues to abuse the passports of its allies. Israel also, according to Australian authorities neglected to notify it that an Australian citizen was jailed and had died in Israeli custody. This is a minimal standard that all nations adhere to in such circumstances. Indeed, Haaretz's main headline today is:
Prime Minister's Office convenes urgent meeting of media editors
Purpose: To request common action in preventing the publication of the embarrssing story
Government source: the invitation arose from exposure of the details this morning abroad
סוף תמלול הכתבה: תיקון עולם – פרשת האסיר X
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