Alleged Arab torturer Doron Zahavi aka 'Captain George' (Haaretz)
Yesterday, I reported here on a Haaretz story about the notorious “Captain George,” an IDF military intelligence interrogator accused in 2004 of sodomizing a Lebanese kidnap victim in order to secure information about the location of IDF officer, Ron Arad. Among the things I wrote was my complaint that Haaretz was protecting the real identity of George even though he no longer served in military intelligence.
With the help of a diligent Israeli researcher, I can now expose George’s real identity. He is Doron Zahavi, currently the Arab affairs liaison for the Jerusalem police. His job, as I noted yesterday, is to direct community relations and liaison efforts between the police and Jerusalem’s Arab residents.
In discussing the parameters of Zahavi’s job, a police spokesperson told Haaretz:
“The adviser must be an accepted and welcome figure in the Arab community, with excellent interpersonal skills – someone they feel they can trust, otherwise he cannot succeed in the job,” a senior police officer said.
ACRI complaint identifies Doron Zahavi by name
Apparently, Zahavi has performed his job so well he’s garnering rave reviews right and left from his Arab interlocutors. One, Jouad Siam, complained that in a February, 2010 interrogation, Zahavi threatened to destroy his home (Hebrew source) unless he disbanded a Silwan information center Siam had founded to counter the building efforts of settlers in his neigborhood. Here is how the ex-torturer now conducts himself. I’ll let you be the judge whether the leopard has changed his spots:
He [Zahavi] told us we were making problems and we had to close the center. I told him: “I thought we are in a democracy.” This raised the ire of ‘George,’ who said: “We Jews are fools. We treat you too well. I thought you would behave yourself.” ‘George’ threatened that he would draw up a demolition order for his home if he refused to close the center.
According to Siam, “The entire conversation was conducted in shouts. He didn’t let me speak. He would ask and answer his own questions [without allowing Siam to respond]. At the end of the discussion, he told me to go home and behave myself.
Last February, the Association for Civil Right in Israel registered a formal complaint against Zahavi for his outburst. Among the claims listed was that Zahavi called Siam a “criminal” and said that the latter would be held responsible for everything that happened in Silwan. The interrogator asked about the source of Siam’s income and told him he would intervene with his boss. At the end of the meeting, Zahavi attempted to enlist Siam as an informant.
The police replied formally to the complaint claiming laughably that Zahavi had merely invited Siam to a “get to know you” meeting in which the police advisor sought to discover what issues particularly troubled the local Arab population. In the course of the meeting, Zahavi felt it necessary to inform his Arab interlocutor about activities in which he was engaged that violated the law. No mention in the police reply how founding an information center was a violation of law.
The publicly available ACRI complaint lists Zahavi’s real name. In that case, why would Haaretz not be able to use it? The whole situation baffles me. At any rate, thank God we’re not bound by any such nonsense and we offer the real Doron Zahavi to the world in all his glory. If a reader has a picture of Zahavi, please let me know.
Silverstein has published Tikun Olam since 2003, It exposes the secrets of the Israeli national security state. He lives in Seattle, but his heart is in the east. He publishes regularly at Middle East Eye, the New Arab, and Jacobin Magazine. His work has also appeared in Al Jazeera English, The Nation, Truthout and other outlets.
Every terrorist pig should know that he might be sodomized 😉
Fuck those assholes! Fuck them hard in the ass!
Grow up. This is a blog for adults.
@kill_terrorist_pigs
not sure if I can agree with the sodomising of Netanyahu, Lieberman, all of Yisrael Beiteinu, many current and former heads of state in the US, UK, etc… but if you insist.
Nice Work..
Maybe if Israel would stop the occupation,and would reach a two state solution, there will be no terrorism ?
Richard, keep up the great work, you are the best. don’t let them silence your voice.
The only two-state solution worth bargaining for is where Israel goes back behind the armistice line and Palestine has full sovereignty over its territories, and its natural resources, along with the right to control its borders and to have a standing military force. And the right of return of all Palestinian refugees.
This would be justice – and when there is justice there is no need for terrorism.
Mary,
In 48 the un gave them the bigger part of Israel, they didn’t exept and started a war. Where was the justice then?
Unfoutunally for them they lost and a lot of them had to leave. Why should they get the right to return? Show me another place in the world that it happened . They should get their country in the 67 war line more or less and that’s it.
What does that mean? What kind of euphemism is that? They “had to leave?” What, did they have an appointment they couldn’t miss somewhere else? What you mean to say is they were driven out. But did Israeli Palestinians “start a war” against Israel as you claim? No. Their guilt? They were Arab.
UN voted to drive out people from their homes and gave most of the land to non existent yet inhabitants 52% 48% f ! search about it.
those non existent inhabitants were selected through some obscure way (Jewish roots!) and send there in acompany of an army of voluntiers and sophisticated arms.
To a country which was riped by Brithish Mandate in 1917!
and under control of Brithish army !
To colonize and make money for the power.
israel is an illusion . It is an empty dream
One country and that is Palestine .
Please try to stay on topic and not use the comment threads as a personal soap box.
kill_terrorist_pigs is that you doran?
Nice piece of work mr silverstein….kudo to you……
but i would not have covered up this mans face…..
Given the DOS attack, and subsequent downtime, I think I’ll quote the above on my own blog until someone squawks about copyright and tells me not to.
That being said, you can never be sure that the DOS attack was really about this, or whether someone else with a grudge held their fire and timed it so there was somebody else in the frame.
One other thing: there is software which allows astronomers to put tasks onto otherwise idle computers normally used for other things. It might be worth seeing whether the DOS activity matches relatively quiet times at Israeli police HQ, implying that the DOS software starts up when most people go home or go to lunch. That would suggest that the DOS attacker was committing a criminal offence against the Israeli police as well as Richard.
Otherwise, it’s beginning to look as if there’s an Israeli version of the Odessa, acting to protect those who commit crimes against humanity in the name of the cause. That sort of thing Medawar opposes, from any and every part of the political spectrum in every part of the world.
i agree Sandra, everyone should bear witness and know his identity.. great work, Mr. Silverstein, and your reply to that obnoxious individual was one of the best, no nonsense, well deserved smackdown’s i’ve ever had the pleasure of reading..
Thanks, I’m gratified you think so. Some people really desperately need such smackdowns. Bullies think they can get away with murder, sometimes literally.
Indeed.
Mr Peres thinks it’s anti-semetic for the FCO to protest against the misuse of British passports to commit a murder, whilst Mr Putin appears to think that it’s not only okay to commit murder on the streets of London, but okay to do so using huge doses of radioactive poison that put more than 300 people besides the intended victim in considerable danger.
A sad day when the former victims of the Nazis have turned themselves into animals and despicable criminals whose sole presence in this planet is an affront to human dignity and decency.
Doro
Canada