A key Justice Ministry official has urged that the three former Shin Bet operatives who exposed the scandal in Israel’s secret service be re-instated or at least be given public recognition and thanks for bringing the affair to light.
The three, Reuven Hazak, Peleg Rabai and Rafi Malka, were fired by former Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom whom they charged was responsible for the killing of two captured Palestinian bus hijackers in 1984 by Israeli agents, after they were turned over by the army for questioning, and later covered it up.
Deputy Attorney General Yehudit Karp, a member of the Justice Ministry’s legal team which drew up the Attorney General’s report on the affair, sent a letter to Attorney General Yosef Harish Thursday urging fair play for the men.
She noted that Shalom’s version of events, initially believed, was subsequently discredited and he was forced to resign last fall but is immune to prosecution because of a Presidential pardon.
Karp referred in her letter to the “civic courage” of the three ousted agents who were accused of “dishonorable motives” in blowing the whistle on Shalom. The Attorney General, by virtue of his position, should “support people who have the courage to do what they did to expose wrong doing,” Karp wrote.
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