Word: shalom
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...army assault on the bus, and the other two were wounded and died on the way to the hospital. But, in fact, two terrorists were photographed being led away alive. Former senior officials of the internal-security agency, known in Hebrew as Shin Bet, later charged that Avraham Shalom, head of the agency, had ordered the two Palestinians clubbed to death...
Under an arrangement worked out during an all-night meeting, Avraham Shalom, the central figure in the controversy, resigned as director of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency. He was immediately granted a pardon by President Chaim Herzog...
Three former senior employees of the agency had charged that Shalom ordered the two captured Arabs clubbed to death and then covered up the organization's role before two official investigations into the killings. Rising calls for a new probe were opposed by both Labor Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, head of the Likud bloc in Israel's national unity coalition. They insisted that an inquiry into Shin Bet's role in the deaths could expose state secrets...
Jurists, legal scholars and the Israeli press were appalled by Herzog's pardon of Shalom before he was charged with any wrongdoing. The decision was a departure from past practice, in which Presidents have pardoned only convicted criminals. Like Peres and Shamir, Herzog maintained that an investigation might have made sensitive information public. Said he: "I had to take the responsibility and decide, based on the public's welfare as I see it, according to my knowledge and conscience...
...announcement of Shalom's resignation and pardon galled former Justice Minister Chaim Zadok, who had sought an investigation into the Arabs' deaths. Said he: "For the Shin Bet, the lesson to be learned is that you can commit serious crimes. For the political echelon, the lesson is you can do anything you please and will not bear responsibility...