-Caveat Lector-
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 23:28:58 +0200 (IST)
From: barry chamish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: MICHAEL SPITZER <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: AVISHAI RAVIV HAD A TRIAL - SORT OF
AVISHAI RAVIV HAD A TRIAL - SORT OF
by Barry Chamish
The best news about Avishai Raviv's October 3 hearing was the
crowd that came out to witness it. They filled the chamber and
forced security personnel to leave an impressive cluster of
people in the corridor. And that crowd clearly surprised those
employed to try and judge Raviv. The prosecutor, Moshe Shilo,
constantly complained that he was restrained from explaining his
case by the unexpected outsiders and he even suggested the court
be cleared. Those who sat in the chamber were insuring that
justice be done.
Before the hearing began, the majority of the pundits
expected a done deal. Raviv would confess to the two charges
against him: not preventing the murder of Yitzhak Rabin and
creating an inciteful organization, Eyal (Jewish Warriors). He
would admit that he didn't know of Amir's murderous intentions
towards Rabin, thus did not inform his superiors in the Shabak
(General Security Services). As a reward for his honesty and
regret, he would do some cushy public service work and the Shabak
would be saved.
There were a few optimists who were certain a trial would
take place immediately. This hearing had been postponed twice
since July, plenty of time for both sides to have their cases
fully prepared. These hopeful few spoke of being in court until
at least next week.
Raviv entered the courtroom without a kippah on his closely
cut hair, so all pretense of him being actually religious were
dropped. After the camera crews, all two of them, backed off and
left some space, I stared closely at Raviv's face. Then he stared
back at me. I supposed that he was well aware of my book on the
Rabin assassination, since it concentrated so much on his crimes
and must have played a role in his sitting in the court at that
moment. He outstared me, I had to avert my eyes. Despite the fact
that his provocations on behalf of "peace" led to a depth of
suffering seldom, if ever, felt in a country that has felt more
than its deserved share of pain, he was one scared, confused
young man. His eyes and expressionless face told of countless
hours of threats to his being if he sang at this trial, years of
cynical manipulation and subtle to overt mind control. He had to
be wondering how he got into this mess, if he had enough cerebral
independence left to wonder.
Included in the crowd were other people who had helped bring
Raviv to trial. They included Adir Zik, the Hatsofe and Arutz
Sheva journalist who had relentlessly pursued him for four years,
reporting his every move publicly. He even set up a Raviv
hotline, allowing callers to report where they had last seen the
thug. Seated next to me was media watchdog Yisrael Medad, who had
taken an important aspect of the Raviv affair, a staged,
televised Eyal swearing-in-til-death initiation ceremony, to the
Supreme Court. In the row behind us was Arieh Zaritsky, head of
the Professors For A Safe Israel, who had awoken the academic
community to the real Rabin murder facts and thus given a
"conspiracy theory" legitimacy among academia.
Now, since members of this court audience had no doubt that
Raviv was a monster, we were quietly rooting for the prosecutor
Moshe Shiloh. Some thirty years older than the defence lawyer,
Eyal Shomroni-Cohen, he benefitted from the respect that comes
with age, a friendly visage and occasionally, a humorous wit.
As for Shomroni-Cohen, well, we knew he was a Shabak
mouthpiece who appeared at the home of Yigal Amir's parents on
the very night of the assassination, took $2000 from them to
defend his son, absconded with it and ended up being Avishai
Raviv's lawyer. On top of that he was young, humorless and rather
smarmy looking. And of course, we had no doubt his client was
guilty, and that didn't help his image problems.
So we looked for sinister motives when he complained that the
prosecution was blocking him from meeting with former GSS chiefs
Yaacov Perry and Carmi Gillon, and that he was denied access to
1300 pages of printed material, including unreleased portions of
the Shamgar Commission findings. He insisted that Perry and
Gillon were central to his case since in the past, and in order
to escape trials of their own, both had claimed that Raviv was
totally unaware of Amir's plans for Rabin. And he doubly insisted
that he had a legal right to peruse the prosecution docket to
plan his own argument.
Before Shiloh stood up to reply, I did think to myself, why
wouldn't he want Perry and Gillon on the stand? Isn't this what
the trial is supposed to be about? Doesn't he relish the
opportunity to tear the Shabak honchos to bits to get to the
bottom of what Raviv's real crimes entailed? Then I had a
thought, if he did that, eventually he might get to the real
truth; that Rabin's assassination was initially supposed to be
staged, that Amir shot blank bullets and that someone took
advantage of this "exercise" to murder Rabin in actuality.
The thought passed almost unnoticed as Shiloh listed the
usual national security excuses for not releasing witnesses and
testimonies to the defence. Then Shiloh made an offer; he would
allow the defence full access if it agreed not to publicize the
material and only in the presence of a security officer from the
Shabak or Justice Ministry. As for the Shamgar Commission
findings, he had no authority to release them to the defence.
At this point Judge Amnon Cohen, who led the panel of three
justices, turned down the offer of a Shabak or Justice Ministry
security officer, stating that he would appoint an appropriate
security observor from the court. So, we asked, what makes him so
distrustful of, not so much the Shabak, which was expected, but
of his ultimate employer, the Justice Ministry?
Shomroni-Cohen also became agitated that Shiloh did not name
which rabbis he was going to call as witnesses. When asked why,
he replied that Amir's intentions towards Rabin were well known
throughout the religious community, and without giving away his
line of defence, Raviv was being picked on because he was a
Shabak agent.
At this point Judge Cohen observed, "Shabak agent or not, it
is a crime not to report the impending murder of the prime
minister...Now I want to know, did your client know about Yigal
Amir's plans to shoot the prime minister, yes or no."
For the first and only time in the session, there was a
restrained gasp from the audience when Shomroni-Cohen replied,
"No."
Raviv was planning to defend himself. There was no deal. He
didn't confess. A trial would take place.
Then we fell back to earth. Shomroni-Cohen requested the right
to appeal to the Supreme Court to release the secret sections of
the Shamgar Report before the trial began. Judge Cohen sighed,
smirked and said, "I barely have control of this court, let alone
the Supreme Court. But two months should be enough time for them
to answer your petition. The trial will begin, then, in
December."
Though not necessarily. If the Supreme Court waited longer,
the trial could begin as late as February. We left the courtroom
in great agitation, almost all of us convinced that we had seen
another delaying tactic by Raviv's lawyer and the judges. But
Professor Zaritsky sorted things out to my satisfaction. "That's
not what happened," he insisted. It was Shiloh who was trying to
cover everything up. His strategy was to deny Raviv access to the
most sensitive witnesses and documents and rush a judgement
through. The only way the truth will come out is if Raviv is in a
fair fight. The judges ruled for the defence every time and they
were right. From now on I'm watching out for the prosecution and
cheering for Raviv to press a strong defence."
An epiphany: RAVIV IS INNOCENT OF THE MAIN CHARGE AGAINST HIM.
He did not know Amir was going to murder Rabin and, in fact Amir
did not murder Rabin. Raviv knew only of a FAKE murder attempt.
If he pursues the truth to the end, he will be acquitted. If they
let him.
I had bowed to Zaritsky's superior analytical skills. And I
had to bow twice. Right afterwards, a demonstrator outside the
court building, Itamar Ben Gvir came up to me. He had to be
angry. In my book I quoted sections from three sources: The
Shamgar investigation report, the court protocols of Yigal Amir's
trial and police records; all of which record Amir testifying
that on the night of Rabin's murder he was informed that Avishai
Raviv gave right wing activist Itamar Ben Gvir a gun loaded with
blanks and he intended to shoot it at Rabin.
"Do you know the trouble you caused me?" Ben Gvir asked. "My
parents read the book and they were deeply distressed. I was
beaten up at a rally because people thought I was a Shabak agent.
I never knew Amir. He tried to tie me in to the assassination
because I knew Raviv too well. It was all disinformation. Don't
see you that I'm just another victim of Raviv and that's why I'm
here today?"
At that moment, I did see.
--end--
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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