Shin Bet Uncovers Plot to Kill Olmert, by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
Doctors Without Borders: “We would like to make it very clear that we make a distinction between his professional work and what he does on his personal time.”
Excerpts;
A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip who works for the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders has been arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Mazab Bashir, 25, from Deir el-Balah began working with Doctors Without Borders five years ago.
On April 19, he confessed during a Shin Bet interrogation that for months, he had been collecting intelligence on senior Israeli officials – including Olmert and a number of Knesset members.
Bashir met with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in September 2006, and said that the assassination was meant to avenge the deaths of Palestinian civilians.
Bashir also underwent arms training with the PFLP, and was picked to carry out the planned assassination.
He told the Shin Bet that he had collected information on the Internet to use to target MKs, but then realized that the MKs in question did not live in Jerusalem, the only Israeli city to which his permit granted him access.
According to the officials, after the doctor realized that the security surrounding Olmert was impenetrable, Bashir decided in December 2006 to kill David Be’eri, head of the Elad organization, a group involved in purchasing Arab homes in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Duncan Mclean, head of ‘Doctors Without Borders’ in the region, told Israel Radio, “I don’t think embarrassed would be the right word. We are very sad for Bashir who has been working for us for almost six years. But we would like to make it very clear that we make a distinction between his professional work and what he does on his personal time in the sense that all our staff is hired for professional reasons and I don’t think our organization can be held liable for every aspect of their life.”
Commentary;
This author would like to know where ‘Doctors Without Borders’ receives its funding; The Saudis? The Arab League? Iran? The EU? All of Olmert’s “negotiating partners”? Absurd, but true??
The spectre of Arab assassination plots is an area which we will need to recall the next time the Shin Bet releases news of some seemingly
“sensational plot” against a government leader which they (the Shin Bet) would purport to be an “extreme right-wing plot.” MB