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de:Shin Beth he:שירות הביטחון הכללי nl:Shin Bet Missing image ShabakLogo.gif Shabak emblem "Defender who shall not be seen" The Shin Bet (in Hebrew, שב"כ "SHABAK" an acronym of "Sherut Bitahon Klali" שירות ביטחון כללי), is the Internal General Security Service of Israel. Its motto is "מגן ולא יראה" whose translation is: "Defender (Shield) who shall not be seen".
Duties and rolesThe SHABAK duties are:
One of the Shin Bet's roles is to protect the lives of senior Israeli ministers and public servants (such as the President of Israel). The Shin Bet is also responsible for preventing the funding of underground movements and terror groups whose members are Israeli citizens. It accomplishes this goal by using interrogations and secret agents (HUMINT). Legal status and MethodsThe SHABAK relies mainly on HUMINT to extract information and gather intelligence. It uses informants from the local population in order to gather intelligence about planned terror attacks or about the location of terror leaders. SHABAK had overwhelming success with informants, managing to target the top terror leaders of the Palestinian terror organizations - including hardliners such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. The killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abed al-Aziz Rantissi shows how deeply SHABAK has penetrated into the Palestinian militias. As a result, the Palestinians groups, mainly the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades started lynching suspected collaberators and killing them on the street without a trial. SHABAK also extract information by interrogating suspects. Until the 1980's SHABAK used contraversial methods, which included beatings. However, on 1987, after complaints about excessive use of violence in interrogations of Palestinian prisoners, the Landoy Comitte (headed by chief supreme judge) published a report setting criteria for lawful interrogation methods. The report allowed SHABAK to apply "moderate physical pressure" only in the case of "a ticking bomb" - i.e. a terrorist attack which is about to occure in the near time, and urgent efforts must be taken in order to thwart it. In 1999 the Israeli Supreme Court (Bagatz) discussed SHABAK interrogation methods and ruled that physical pressure is not allowed. In the Justice Ministry, the Department For Special Roles (http://www.justice.gov.il/MOJHeb/PraklitotHamedina/MehozotHapraklitutVehamachlakot/HamachlakaLetafkidimMeyuhadim/), there is a senior investigator who checks complaints about SHABAK interrogations. As a result, SHABAK is now basing its interrogations on psychological means and has become very effective in applying psychological pressure. However, complaints about physical pressure continue. In 2002 the Israeli Knesset passed a law, regulating the activity of SHABAK. The law ruled that:
HistoryWith the declaration of Independence, the Shin Bet was founded, as a branch of the Israeli Defence Forces, and was headed by Iser Harel (the father of Israeli Intelligence, who later headed the Mossad). After short while, the Shin Bet was moved from IDF responsibility to the prime minister responsibility. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war the Shin Bet dealt only with internal security. After the war, it established departments forCounter-espionage and the monitoring of Israeli Arabs (Palestinians who stayed in Israel after the war and recieved Israeli citizenship). In the beginning, as part of the efforts to prevent undermining activity, the Shin Bet also monitored pro-Soviet opposition parties, which were suspected of supporting the Soviet Union over Israel if the Cold War would become an active full scale war. Today, this kind of activity is considered harming to democracy. The political leadership, headed by David Ben-Gurion, made sure to silence publications that dealt with those activities, which were published only in Haolam Hazeh newspaper by Uri Avneri. A great contraversy was created, when two Shin Bet agents were caught installing a bugging device in Meir Yeari's office (Yeari was the leader of Mapam - a Socialist Zionist party, but with favorable reviews on the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin). Up until the Six Day War, the Shin Bet continued to focuse on Counter-espionage and monitoring terrorist activity among the Israeli Arabs. SHABAK's most noteable achievement in counter-espionage was the capture of Dr Israel Bar in 1961 who was revealed to be a Soviet spy. Bar was a Lieutenant Colonel in the reserves, a senior security commantator and close friend of Ben-Gurion, and reached high Israeli circles. Bar was tried and sentence to life in prison, where he died. In the same year, Kurt Sita, a Christian German from the Sudets and a proffesor in the Technion, was revealed as a Czech spy. After the Six Day War, SHABAK efforts to monitor terrorist activity in the occupied territories become a more and more dominant part of the organization activity, and today it is considered to be the major part of SHABAK's mission. Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned that the control over the territories will turn Israel into a "SHABAK state". However, SHABAK imposed restrictions on itself in order to not harm democratic values, separation of authorities and to prevent the risk that SHABAK will be used in a totalitarian manner. During 1984-1986 SHABAK went into a major crisis following the Kav 300 affair in which two terrorists who hijacked a bus and took hostages were executed without trial by SHABAL officers, who later covered the event and gave false testimonies. Following this affair, Avraam Shalom (then the head of SHABAK) was forced to resign. The event resulted in the Landoy committee, which regulated SHABAK interrogation methods. Another crisis was in 1995, following the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin by Yigal Amir. An investigation committee found serious flaws in the personal security unit, and provocative and inciting behavior of Avishay Raviv - an agent of the Jewish department who was responsible for Rabin pictures in SS uniforms. Following the event, Carmi Gillon was forced to resign. In 1996, a unit of the SHABAK assassinated Hamas chief bombmaker Yahya Ayyash by planting explosive device in his cellular phone. The operation was carried out after an instruction by prime minister Shimon Peres. During the al-Aqsa Intifada, SHABAK regained its good reputation. Important events in SHABAK history
Heads of the SHABAK
The SHABAK in the al-Aqsa IntifadaDuring the al-Aqsa Intifada the SHABAK took prominent role in Israel's war against Palestinian terrorism which plauged Israeli cities after the collapse of the 2000 Camp David Summit. The Shin Bet is most known for its role in the conflict against Palestinian terrorists. The Shin Bet produces intelligence which enables the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to prevent suicide bombings before they reach their destinations. The Shin Bet's intelligence has enabled the IDF to target senior leaders who they consider among Israel's enemies, mainly those of Hamas, but also of the Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Fatah and even one Al-Qaeda linkman (Iad Al-Bik). In addition, SHABAK uncovered dozens of terrorist group within the Israeli Arab population - most were guided by the Iranian-Lebanese groupHizbullah and by Palestinian terrorist factions such as al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israeli Arabs usually used as spies, bomb-transporters and suicide bombers transporters, and seldom took carried out attack themselves. Some consider the quality and quantity of the intelligence gathered by the Shin Bet among the best of the world's secret service agencies. SHABAK activity during the second Intifada boosted his reputation both in the Israeli public and among counter-terror experts. Current eventsIn November 2003 four former heads of Shin Bet, Avraham Shalom, Yaakov Peri, Carmi Gillon and Ami Ayalon called upon the Government of Israel to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. [1] (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1096286,00.html). Ami Ayalon, along with Palestinian professor Sari Nusseibeh, launched the National Census peace initiative. See also
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