Anti-BDS intelligence chief revealed as Shai Har-Zvi

April 29th, 2017

Awake Goy

A leaked report, endorsed by the Israeli government, has revealed the name of a top official crucial to the fight against the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Obtained by The Electronic Intifada, the report lists Shai Har-Zvi as “Director of Intelligence” at the Ministry of Strategic affairs – Israel’s anti-BDS ministry.

Har-Zvi is one of dozens of contributors to the document, which outlines the Israel lobby’s failures in combating the Palestine solidarity movement – what it smears as a “delegitimization” network.

Har-Zvi held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Israeli army, working in the foreign relations and strategy section more than a decade ago. He was also briefly a researcher for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.

Har-Zvi may well be connected to Mossad, or one of Israel’s other spy agencies.

Israeli journalist Yossi Melman revealed in September that the intelligence section of the ministry is run by a former security services operative and receives assistance from “a special unit” within Israeli military intelligence and from the Shin Bet secret police.

Melman also reported that the ministry is involved in “black-ops” against the Palestine solidarity movement.

The veteran intelligence analyst wrote that the ministry had hired 25 workers whose names are classified.

Secretive report exposed

The report was written by influential think tank the Reut Institute and US Israel lobby group the Anti-Defamation League. Its existence was first reported in February. Reut and the ADL were said to be “only circulating print copies of the report” among selected pro-Israel operatives and sympathetic media.

The Jewish Daily Forward reported that the newspaper had received the report on condition that it not be published in its entirety.

But The Electronic Intifada has now published the report in full.

Although Har-Zvi’s post on the Begin-Sadat think tank’s website appears to have been deleted, at time of publication the PDF version of a paper he wrote on Russia in the Middle East is still downloadable from the site. His profile page is still on the site too, although it reveals little.

According to Israel expert Dena Shunra, Har-Zvi received his doctorate in 2015 from Israel’s Bar Ilan University. The subject of his dissertation was Jordanian policy towards Jerusalem.

Dena Shunra contributed research and translation.