A Knesset panel investigating the government’s handling of the Jonathan Pollard spy case heard key witnesses Wednesday as the Cabinet acted to remove the main obstacle holding up its own probe of the affair.
The intelligence subcommittee of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, which has conducted more than 100 hours of closed hearings since it started its investigation two weeks ago, heard testimony from one of the two most controversial figures in the case, Rafael Eitan, a former Mossad operative and former head of the Defense Ministry’s scientific relations department. Another witness Wednesday was former Defense Minister Moshe Arens.
The subcommittee has scheduled its entire Thursday session to question Air Force Col. Aviem Sella. According to Pollard’s confession, he was recruited and given espionage assignments by Sella and his spy unit, LEKEM, was headed by Eitan.
CONTROVERSIAL PROMOTIONS
The advancement of Sella’s and Eitan’s careers despite their alleged deep involvement with Pollard angered the U.S. and raised a storm of controversy in Israel and between Israel and American Jewish leaders. Sella was given command of Israel’s second largest airbase and Eitan was appointed chairman of Israel Chemicals, the largest government-owned corporation.
While the Knesset subcommittee’s secret hearings were raising media speculation that the top political echelons of the government will be badly tarnished by its findings, which was denied by committee leaders Abba Eban and Ehud Olmert, the Cabinet agreed that testimony given to its own two-man committee of inquiry will not be conveyed to the U.S. Attorney General Yosef Harish was authorized to make that commitment in writing to David Libai, a lawyer representing three other key figures in the Pollard case. Libai had advised his clients not to testify on grounds of self-incrimination that could lead to prosecution in the U.S.
As a result, the Cabinet-sponsored investigation, conducted by Tel Aviv lawyer Yehoshua Rotenstreich and former Chief of Staff Gen. Zvi Tsur, was unable to start as scheduled last week.
The witnesses are Yosef Yagur, former Scientific Attache at the Israel Consulate General in New York; Ilan Ravid, former assistant to the Scientific Attache at the Israel Embassy in Washington; and Irit Erb, a former secretary at the Scientific Attache’s office in Washington. The three left the U.S. when Pollard was arrested in 1985.
The Cabinet also decided to allow the witnesses to appeal to the Supreme Court if they believe the government is about to renege on its agreement.
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