"Israel's
Media complied to highlight the violent adventures
of GSS agent
provocateur, thereby aiding in the left-wing claim that
there was an
"incitement campaign".
The following article
was published in the
Jerusalem Post on November 12, 1998.
The Conspiracy and the Complicity
by
Yisrael Medad
Executive
Director
Israel's
Media Watch
The decision of Israel’s Attorney-General, Elyakim Rubinstein, to press criminal charges dealing, in part, with an orchestrated "swearing-in" ceremony supervised by General Security Services (GSS) agent Avishai Raviv, was long overdue. It was three years ago that Israel's Media Watch (IMW) first brought to public attention the probability that Raviv's performance was staged, perhaps in collusion with the TV’s Channel One film crew. And today, IMW is still concerned over the role then played by the electronic media in the coverage of the Raviv/Eyal escapades.
Rubinstein's decision, courageous as it was in the face of opposition from within the State Prosecutor's Office and the criticism of left-wing politicians, does not adequately deal with the issue of possible complicity that existed between the media and the political agenda of the previous government.
Ami Ayalon, current GSS director, admitted to the government last year that the Prime Minister’s bureau was notified a few days after the ceremony was broadcast that it was "a sham, a double deception also on behalf of the television". Former A-G Michael Ben-Yair has also gone on record that the footage was a hoax. Thus, the sharp criticism by such left-wing political figures as Amnon Rubinstein, Yossi Sarid, Ori Orr and Shimon Peres that Rubinstein is providing succor to those who would believe in a conspiracy theory in connection with Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, should be judged as self-serving in the extreme.
Avishai Raviv was implanted into the nebulous area of right-wing fringe groups. Ever since late 1987, when he was 21 years old, he has been a paid employee of the state of Israel. But what exactly was he paid to do? What was his mission? One cannot avoid the nasty suspicion concerning the GSS motives when one reflects more closely on just what the Raviv Affair is truly all about.
According to the Shamgar Commission Report, an intrinsic part of Raviv's job was the perpetration of violent and criminal deeds. He engaged in assault, spouted racist invective, battered Arabs, damaged property, solicited minors to commit illegal acts and, ironically, lied to his handlers. As part of his cover, he married and then, psychologically and physically, abused his spouse until she divorced him. He was constantly excused for his behavior and, following stern talks, repeatedly rehired even after he assumed responsibility, as leader of the Eyal organization, for the murder of an Arab in Halhul in September 1995.
As the Shamgar Report makes clear, Raviv was engaged not only in violence but in provocation. The report notes that "his handlers even chose to order him to write graffiti against the peace process". In any normal society, his employers would be chastised for moral corruption in serving a partisan political direction. Despite the recent interviews of GSS officers, Raviv’s main task was the promotion of an image, the image of a wild, anti-democratic, felonious and outlaw ideology. And, with GSS prodding, and the willing cooperation of central Israel media personnel, that image took hold.
The media, especially the electronic media, with its demand for "action", for pictures and scandal, alighted upon Raviv. His ceremonies, his camps for arms training and his military-style exercise in preparation for the "conquest" of the Orient House broadcast on TV’s Channel One and Two, became a focus of attention. Those scenes locked into the public’s consciousness. As British media observer Patrick Birkinshaw has written, "TV represents the most immediate and effective mass persuader and conveyor of information in our culture". And Raviv was a TV star.
Israel Broadcasting Authority’s Eitan Oren, a reporter for the weekly round-up program, "Yoman", had already been suspended for planning a staged item back in 1988. His September 22, 1995 clip of Raviv’s gang was the highlight of media self-enticement. As the Shamgar Report states: "[the clip] was a performance, for anybody who was present at the site must have been aware that it was a fake" (page 28). Eitan’s professionalism, it would appear, failed him. His personal agenda overrode ethical judgment for, it seemed, he was convinced that he was serving a higher principle: combating the right-wing.
Oren, his editor, Yisrael Segal, ITV director Yair Stern and IBA director-general Mordechai Kirschenbaum all sought to deny what everyone else perceived: Israel's state-supervised television channel was acting in complicity, willingly or otherwise, to convince the viewers that what they were seeing was truth, when it wasn't.
Whether or not with malice aforethought, the media took a true outsider with no real support or representative status and with the help of millions of TV screens, placed Raviv, now the epitome of the "extreme right", in everyone’s living rooms and in their minds and thoughts. One cannot deny the atmosphere of antipathy and wrath directed against Rabin and his policies at the time. But, for months, if not years, the outstanding and dominant example and role model of right-wing "incitement" was Avishai Raviv, media star and GSS agent provocateur, paid out of public funds.
The bandied about conspiracy theory should not be whether the GSS staged Rabin’s assassination. Rather it is that the GSS may have crossed the lines of democratic norms. The GSS is now perceived as having lent itself as a weapon of the Labor-Meretz coalition against a massive public protest campaign. In this, the media was willingly compliant.
If there was actual complicity
by the GSS and media elements to aid and abet Raviv’s illegal activities may
be difficult to ascertain. Raviv’s trial, if there is to be one, will be
conducted behind closed doors. But, as Raviv’s defenders are now aware,
no locked door can for too long
suppress the truth.
To see other IMW related Publications click on the book:
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