Proceedings against former Lt. Col. Isar Beeri, who is held responsible for the execution of Meyer Tobiansky, a member of the Haganah who was mistakenly executed on charges of supplying information to the enemy, will open tomorrow in a magistrate’s court in Ramleh.
Col. Beeri, one of the early leaders of the underground Haganah and until four months ago chief of the information service of the Israeli Army, is now a superintendent of a Haifa tile factory. The Ministry of Justice disclosed that he was the prosecutor at a summary court-martial which erroneously found Tobianeky guilty of treason. The case was reviewed recently by order of Premier David Ben Gurion and the late Tobiansky was entirely absolved. At the time, Mr. Ben Gurion announced that those responsible for his execution would be tried by a civil court.
Tobiansky’s execution was carried out at Kfar Jiz by a rifle squad of the Israeli Army before the sentence could be reviewed, it was established later. There was no rabbinical authority present, nor did the accused have a lawyer. Beeri has been released in $1,000 bail.
The case of Tobiansky is considered here as the “Dreyfus case” of Israel. The victim was charged with giving a list of emergency electric power users in the Jewish section of Jerusalem to British officers of the Jerusalem Electric Corporation, which employed him as an engineer. The list allegedly was used by the Arab Legion artillery to pinpoint targets in the Jewish sector of the city.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
