Avishai Raviv

Avishai Raviv was an agent of Israel's Shin Bet or Shabak, Israel's domestic intelligence service. Some rightists say his mission was to encourage and fabricate activities of right-wing extremists. His code name was 'Champagne'.

Raviv was a student at Tel Aviv University and was expelled for violent behavior. He was later a student at Bar Ilan University.

At one protest, Raviv was filmed with a picture of Rabin in an SS uniform prior to Rabin's murder. Raviv allegedly knew of Yigal Amir's plans to assassinate Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, based on a controversial classification of handing over "Jewish land" in the category of "din rodef" ("law of the pursuer"). According to Jewish law, anyone who is classified as a pursuer, must be killed immediately. The classification of a forfeiter of land as a rodef states that "If a Jew gives up the land of other Jews to Goyim, and he persists in this, that is, he gives up the land of three or more Jews, he is a Rodef." Uri Dan, a journalist close to Ariel Sharon, wrote that witnesses heard Raviv tell Amir: "Be a man! Kill him already!"

After Rabin was assassinated, the journalist Amnon Abramowitch revealed that Raviv was an agent of the Shabak.

Raviv was brought to trial in 2000 for not preventing Rabin's assassination. Raviv mounted a successful defense on the grounds that he had just been doing his job and events had spun out of control.

See also

• Barry Chamish - "Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin?", ISBN 1-57129-081-8.
• David Morrison - Lies: The Israeli Secret Service And The Rabin Assassination'