Boy Do I wish I could get a hold on those documents, I'm sure they'd have a stack of phonebooks with Shimon Peres name on it....
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54979FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Legendary Jerusalem mayor ratted out fellow JewsInfo held back by government, prompting questions about other politicians' pasts
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – Teddy Kollek, the legendary mayor of Jerusalem and one of Israel's most re-elected politicians, ratted out fellow Jews to the British occupiers of pre-State Israel, even once trying to have former prime minister Menachem Begin arrested.
The information was provided by recently declassified British intelligence documents held back from the public at the request of the Israeli government as long as Kollek was alive, prompting some here to wonder whether other Israeli politicians currently living, such as former prime minister Shimon Peres, who worked closely with Kollek, were also moles against Jews. Kollek died three months ago.
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The British MI5 documents reveal Kollek had spent much of the 1940s passing information to British authorities that helped them crack down on underground Jewish fighters. Kolleck was Jerusalem's longest-serving mayor and is largely regarded here as an Israeli hero.
According to the documents, Kollek was one of the most important informers. He used his position as head of intelligence for the Jewish Agency, a precursor to the Israeli government, for ratting out Jewish fighters against British occupation and Arab terror attacks. The Jewish Agency reportedly collected information on the Jewish underground, parts of which went on to become the Israeli Defense Forces.
Kollek mostly ratted out the Irgun, a paramilitary and activist group that carried out retaliatory attacks against Arab terror and was considered by some to be politically conservative. The Irgun broke away from the Haganah, another Zionist activist group, out of protest for the Haganah's socialist leanings and policy of restraint in the face of Arab attacks.
According to Yediot Aharonot, Israel's leading daily newspaper, the declassified British documents revealed that during a meeting with an MI5 officer on Aug. 10, 1945, Kollek disclosed the location of a secret Irgun training camp in an abandoned building near Jerusalem.
British forces raided the camp soon after, arresting 27 Irgun members, including three women and a handful of commanders who topped Britain's list of most wanted underground figures.
"It will be a great idea to raid the place," Kollek is quoted as telling his British contact during one of their meetings.
The British contact wrote in one of his briefings that success against "Zionist terror" depended on Kollek and his men.
According to the British intelligence documents, Kollek tried to help the British capture one of their most wanted men: Menachem Begin, who commanded the Irgun from 1944 until he helped found the Jewish state and served as its prime minister from 1977-1983.
The British documents were made public three months after Kollek's death in January at age 95. The story made top national news this weekend in Israel, with many expecting the furor to radically alter Kolleck's place in Israeli history.
The Israeli government reportedly urged Britain to keep the Kollek documents classified until after the Israeli politician's death. About a year ago, the British Foreign Office advised the Israeli embassy in London that it was about to declassify hundreds of thousands of documents from the 1940s. Among them was portfolio No. 66968, the file dealing with Kollek's ties with British intelligence. According to Yediot Aharonot, Israel asked Britain not to declassify the Kollek documents while he was living.
Kollek served as Jerusalem mayor from 1965 to 1993. He was mayor in the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War during which Israel recaptured the eastern sections of Jerusalem, including the Old City and the Temple Mount. Kollek regularly advocated for the rights of Arabs and was reportedly instrumental in petitioning for the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – to be administered by a Muslim trust, the Waqf, which maintains the site today and refuses non-Muslim prayer at the Mount.
Some national commentators here accused Israel this weekend of conniving to suppress the Kollek information, and wondered whether other leading Israeli politicians served as agents against Jews prior to Israel's establishment. One television commentator asked about the history of Peres, Israel's longest serving Knesset member, who worked closely with Kollek in the 1940's.
Topic: FMR Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek ratted out Irgun to British (Read 2038 times)