MOSSAD’S SECRET WAR ON PALESTINIANS
In October 2017, Yossi Cohen, the head of Mossad, admitted that the agency carries out ‘hundreds of thousands’ of operations against ‘enemy countries’ every year
MOSSAD, the Israeli spy agency that has many times in the past come under fire for its cold, calculated murder of Palestinians outside the Zionist state, is again under international scrutiny with the murder of Palestinian academic and engineer Dr Fadi M.R. Albatsh, 35, in Kuala Lumpur.
The murder, as reported, bears all the hallmarks of a Mossad operation.
Mossad is as old as the Zionist state, having been founded in 1948, and has been known in its early years of establishment to have targeted German scientists who were helping Egypt build rockets. Mossad would do the same much later against Iraqi and Iranian nuclear scientists.
The killing of the Palestinian lecturer is an international issue that is being investigated very carefully from all angles by Malaysian authorities. The suspects are believed to be either of Middle Eastern or European descent, with links to a foreign intelligence agency.
Expectedly, Israeli Defence Minister Avigador Liberman dismissed claims that the country’s spy agency was behind the assassination of Dr Fadi, suggesting instead that his killing was a “settling of an account”.
Reports said the Palestinian and Egyptian embassies were working to coordinate the trans- fer of the body to Gaza for burial. Israel was asking the Egyptian government not to allow the body to be returned to his family.
Palestinian group Hamas described Dr Fadi as a young Palestinian scholar and distinguished scientist. He specialised in power systems and energy saving, and had published a number of scientific papers on the subject. He was a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause on social media. Hamas, which is in control of the Gaza Strip, does not recognise Israel, and there have been years of conflict between the two sides. It has occasionally sent drones across the border into Israel, but these have either crashed or been shot down.
In the late 1970, Mossad reportedly killed a Palestinian wanted for airline hijackings by feeding him poisoned Belgian chocolates over six months. Israel tracked down Wadia Haddad, an operative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in Baghdad. Details of the killing have come to light and provide a glimpse into how sophisticated Israel is at poisoning its victims.
In addition to this, Mossad was believed to have assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists in the past. A total of five Iranian scientists, four of them involved in the country’s nuclear programme, were killed in bomb and gun attacks in Teheran between 2010 and 2012 at the height of tensions over the country’s nuclear ambitions. Mossad’s goal was to sobatage the Iranian nuclear programme. Mossad also targeted Syrian, Lebanese and European leaders and operatives.
In October last year, Yossi Cohen, the head of Mossad, admitted that the agency carries out “hundreds of thousands” of operations against “enemy countries” every year. In 2010, an international scandal erupted when the agency used three forged passports to enter Dubai and assassinated Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh. He was electrocuted and suffocated in his hotel room. It was reported that the assassination was likely sanctioned by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Isreali prime minister.
Relations between Australia and Israel were strained after three Australian passports were apparently used by suspects in the killing of Al-Mabhouh. The spy agency cloned 12 British passports that were found among 26 forged identity documents used by the hit squad that murdered Al-Mabhouh.
For Britain, Israel had shown a “profound disregard” for British sovereignty. Germany, Ireland and France stepped up diplomatic pressure on Israel demanding explanations on the use of forged European passports by assassins who targeted Al-Mabhouh.
ABC’s Middle East correspondent Anne Barker wrote that the Israeli spy agency has its own “passport factory” to create or doctor passports for use in intelligence operations. Mossad has a very well-funded research department, dedicated to manufacturing the fake documents.
Mossad’s successes are also balanced out by its embarrassing failures. In 1997, Mossad agents conducted a failed bid to kill Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Jordan by spraying poison in his ear. The head of Mossad then, Danny Yatom, was forced to step down as the failed assassination attempt made international headlines.
Other failures that followed cratered the once seemingly invincible state-sponsored murder machine.
Mossad’s successes are also balanced out by its embarrassing failures.
The writer, a former lecturer of UiTM Shah Alam and International Islamic University Malaysia, Gombak, is a Fulbright scholar and Japan Institute of International Affairs fellow