Israel’s security chief denied settler accusations that agents-provocateurs have been planted among far-right political groups. “These are baseless charges,” Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin was quoted as telling President Moshe Katsav in a meeting Wednesday. “There is no Shin Bet involvement, nor has there been, in inciting the recent anti-disengagement protests.” After several demonstrations against Israel’s upcoming withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank turned violent, settler officials speculated that the disturbances were the work of Shin Bet agents intent on discrediting the right-wing. The precedent usually cited is Avishai Raviv, a Shin Bet agent planted among Israelis opposed to the Oslo peace accords in the 1990s.
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