Fort the first time, and in an official statement, Israel admitted that its Mossad agents assassinated Palestinian novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist Ghassan Kanafani in 1973 by placing explosives in his car.
Kanafani was not the only one who was assassinated in an operation that targeted several Palestinian and Arab figures.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published a report by Eitan Haber, which revealed information on the assassination carried out by Israel against Kanafani and other operations it carried out in Arab countries after Israeli Athletes were killed at Munich Airport during the Olympic Games in München – Germany, in 1972.
Haber, who served as the spokesperson of the slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and the man who wrote Rabin’s speeches, along with Michael Bar Zohar, published a book, titled ‘The Pursuit of the Red Prince’.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that after a Palestinian group abducted 11 Israeli athletes who participated in Munich Olympics, the German police killed some of the Palestinians and all of the Israeli athletes.
Haber said that the Germans, encouraged by Israel, did not intend to free the abductees.
‘German Policemen waited at the airport and opened fired at the Palestinian group and their hostages’, Haber wrote, ‘two years after the incident took place it was revealed that all of the killed were by German snipers in spite of the fact that everyone believed that the Palestinians killed them’.
‘Yet, Israeli Prime Minister, at that time, Golda Meir issued an order to
form a ministerial committee in order to assassinate Palestinian figures,
and take revenge’, Haber added.
The committee was formed, and composed of the following Israeli figures; Moshe Dayyan, who served as the Israeli Minister of Demesne, minister of foreign affairs Yig’al Alon, minister without portfolio, Yesrael Galilee,
Chief of the Mossad Zfika Zamir, Meir’s intelligence advisors Aharon Yarif, and Rahba’am Zeevi who was assassinated by a Palestinian group in 2001 while he was at Hayat Hotel in Jerusalem.
According to Haber, Israel decided to assassinate Palestinian figures in Europe, but the Mossad did not have ‘enough agents’ there, and was not capable of infiltrating the Arab communities in Europe.
The Mossad, which is responsible for Israel’s operations abroad, decided to recruit all Israeli security organisations, including the Shabak and a special military group known as Unit 504, and appointed figures known for their advanced intelligence abilities such as Shmoel Goren, Baroch Kohen, Tzadoq Ophir, Rafi Seeton, Eliezer Tsfarir, Mike Harary, and Nahoum Edmoni, who was responsible for the Israeli intelligence relations with foreign intelligence agencies.
German snipers, waiting at the airport in Munich, opened fire and killed the Israeli athletes and the five Palestinians, three other Palestinians were arrested, Haber said.
Several months later, the three Palestinians were freed after a group hijacked a German plane.
‘In 1974, it was revealed that all of the persons killed in the operation, were shot by German snipers, in spite of the world believing that the hostages were killed by the kidnappers’, Haber said.
Following the incident, Golda Meir decided to take revenge, and formed a ministerial committee to ‘issue the assassination orders’.
Yet, more than 30 years after Israel started its ‘revenge’ operations, much information is still classified, Haber said.
The first Palestinian assassinated by Israel was a man known as the Currant man. The man, who was a member of the Black September group, remained unidentified.
According to Haber, the Currant man intended to send a shipment which included two tons of explosives, from Athens to Haifa port.
The shipment never left the harbor, after the Israeli security received tips about it, and sent its agents to Athens, and assassinated the Man’.
During the hunt for the Currant man, Israeli agents uncovered the identity of Fateh leader in Athens and attempted to assassinate him.
‘The agents wired the home of the Fateh leader, and planted explosives and a microphone in his apartment, but when he came home, the agents discovered that there was someone else at home, his girlfriend, and called the
operation off’.
Also, Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that Mossad agents killed Mohammad Bodia’, an Algerian novelist by wiring his car in Paris.
Israel claims that Bodia’ dispatched three French women to Israel (Evelyn Barj, Nadia, and Marline Bradley) and two old men in order to carry suicide bombings there but the Mossad arrested them at Al Lud Airport.
Haber also said that the Mossad assassinated a person, suspected to be a member of Black September organization, by wiring his bed.
The Mossad also arrested members of a cell in Nairobi – Kenya, after claiming that they planned to fire a missile at an Israeli plane and that they received training at a camp that belongs to the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine.
Members of the cell which included two Germans were transferred to Israel and spent five years in secret custody; the report did not mention what happened with them later on.
Haber added that several persons were killed ‘by mistake’ in spite of the fact that they had no relation with the München incident, and had no relationship with any group.
The Mossad said that in spite of several persons being ‘accidentally’ killed, the operation managed to spread fear among the Palestinian community in Europe.
One of the main figures assassinated by Israel was Ghassan Kanafani, the Palestinian novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist.
Kanafani was assassinated after Mossad agents wired his car in 1973.
Israel also admits it assassinated Ahmad Al Hamshary, the representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, in France.
Agents wired the home of Al Hamshary in Paris.
Another Palestinian who was assassinated in spite of not having any relation with the München incdent was professor Basel Al Kabeesy, who was shot and killed in Paris, March 1973.
Mossad agent Baroch Cohen was killed in Paris by a Palestinian who assassinated him in retaliation for the assassinations the Mossad was carrying out.
Cohen was replaced by Gideon Ezra, the current Israeli minister of Internal Security.
Haber reported that an American Movie director, Steven Spielberg, intends to announce his new movie which documents the Israeli operations with the figures he believes are behind the München events.
Haber added that Israel fears that the movie which will be broadcasted in November 2005, will falsify the Israeli claims that all of the assassinated persons were involved in the München hijack, and that Israel assassinated
Palestinian leaders ‘in order to deliver a message of the Israeli capacity’.
