Did Israel Allow Informant On Jewish Extremists To Commit Suicide?
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(JTA) — The family of an Israeli government informant on Jewish extremists who killed himself is demanding authorities investigate their agents’ failure to prevent the suicide.
The 20-year-old informant, identified in the Israeli media only as A, hanged himself at the Havat Gilad West Bank outpost shortly after telling his handler at the Israel Security Agency that he would end his own life because his girlfriend had left him, Ynet reported Friday.
The man’s father told Ynet that people who knew his son at Havat Gilad also knew that his son had been working for the agency, which is known abroad as Shin Bet and is the Israeli counterpart of the FBI. The son’s cellular phone contained recordings of an hour-long talk he had had with his handler shortly before his time of death.
“He told him explicitly that he was devastated over the breakup and intends to take his own life,” the father said of the conversation. “The handler could have saved my son’s life but did nothing, it’s extremely hurtful,” the father said.
“I would like to commit suicide, I just don’t have the courage,” the informant says in the recording, which Ynet obtained. “I’ve had this rope around my neck for the past hour.” The handler told the man not commit suicide. “Take that thing and throw it the hell out, I want you alive,” he is heard saying, according to Ynet. But the informant’s lifeless body was found the following morning.
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