Israel prison authorities at Ramleh Prison today transferred to a special cell a man who began a hunger strike last Sunday in protest over the failure of the prison Parole Board to release him for good behavior. The prisoner is known as the “Third Man” in the “Lavon Affair,” whose testimony in 1955 led to that controversial issue. He was placed in a special cell reserved for hunger strikers. His identity is a security secret, as are the details of a 1954 “security mishap” which had burgeoned into the Lavon Affair.
The 1954 security mishap resulted in 1955 in the dismissal of Pinhas Lavon, then Minister of Defense, and his later exclusion from the leadership of Histadrut, the Israel federation of labor. During the investigation of the security mishap, a high Israel defense officer was discharged, when he was blamed for the mishap. The man in prison now, however, blamed Mr. Lavon, but later withdrew his accusation against Mr. Lavon. He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment dated from his arrest in 1957.
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.
