About 300 member of the Israeli intelligence community have fallen in active service since the establishment of the State in 1948, and plans are now under way to establish a memorial to them.
Reserve Maj. Gen. Meir Amit, former head of military intelligence and chairman of the Intelligence Memorial Committee, said that about two-thirds of the fallen 300 were members of military intelligence, with about 100 members of other non-military intelligence services, including several non-Jews.
“Till now, they have been as anonymous in death as they were in their work,” Amit told a press conference here yesterday. The memorial will contain the names of some of the fallen, but not all, as some must still remain anonymous. One was buried abroad as a non-Jew, after execution as a spy.
Defense Minister Ariel Sharen has said it cannot provide financial support for the project, and a public appeal is therefore being made.
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