Avraham Ahituv ( he, אברהם אחיטוב; ''né'' Gottfried; December 10, 1930 – July 15, 2009) was an Israeli civil servant who served as director of the

Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; he, שֵׁירוּת הַבִּיטָּחוֹן הַכְּלָלִי; ''Sherut ha-Bitaẖon haKlali''; "the General Security Service"; ar, جهاز الأمن العام), better known by the acronym Shabak ( he, ...

, Israel's security agency, from 1974 to 1980.

Life

Ahituv was born Abraham Gottfried in Germany in 1930, and immigrated to British-controlled

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

with his family in 1935. In 1946 he joined the

Haganah Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...

while a student in the Kfar Ha-Ro'eh seminary, where he completed high school. In 1949 he joined the Internal Intelligence Service, (

SHAI Shai (also spelt Sai, occasionally Shay, and in Greek, Psais) was the deification of the concept of destiny, fate in Egyptian mythology. As a concept, with no particular reason for associating one gender over another, Shai was sometimes consider ...

), which was founded during the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

and later became the

, Israel's security agency. During the conflict period he adopted the surname Ahituv. Through the 1950s Ahituv served in the Arab division of the Shin Bet. Ahituv was instrumental in adopting a policy of "practical moderation" in relation to the

Israeli Arab The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...

demographic. This policy was to enable full integration of the Israeli Arab population into Israeli mainstream society. Ahituv authorized the use of lies in Israeli courts to cover confessions obtained by torture. In August 1982 a controversial report appeared in ''The Washington Star'', indicating that Ahituv's resignation was caused by the intervention of Prime Minister Begin in the investigations in the bombing of Palestinian town mayors by Jewish extremist groups. The allegation was denied by both Begin and Ahituv. After Ahituv testified that his resignation had been submitted before the spate of bombs, the Knesset defense dismissed the ''Washington Star'' report as "groundless" and having "no basis in fact".AJC archives

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahituv, Avraham 1930 births Directors of the Shin Bet Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine 2009 deaths Israeli civil servants Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery