A secret report, concerning the "Unfortunate Affair ("Lavon Affair"). Two thick volumes containing reports and documents by David Ben-Gurion, journalist Haggai Eshed, and others, outlining and analyzing the affair and its aftermath. Photocopied edition. [October 1964].
The two volumes were printed in a very small number of copies, classified "Top Secret", and given to Government members and to security officials. The copy offered here is number 2 and was presented to Minister of Justice Dov Yosef.
The "Unfortunate Affair" is a title given to the operation and exposure of a secret cell that operated in Egypt in the early 1950s with the aim of influencing the relationships of Egypt with the United States and Britain. The cell acted on behalf of Unit 131 of IDF, and was trained and operated by the Israeli Intelligence. In 1954 the unit executed some sabotage acts in Western facilities in Egypt (the operations were supposed to seem as if executed by a nationalist Egyptian underground force). One of the operations was to place bombs in American Embassy libraries in Cairo and in a branch of the Library of Congress in Cairo.Members of the cell were captured and convicted in Egypt.
The military censor in Israel prevented publication of the affair and for many years it was referred to only by code-names and hints. The affair led to the appointment of various investigation committees and long and complex legal discussions, the main issue being: who issued the order for the operation in Egypt?. Minister of Defense at the time, Pinhas Lavon, resigned after a committee appointed by the Prime Minister did not reach a definite decision that it was not Lavon who gave the order. David Ben-Gurion was appointed to replace Lavon as Defense Minister, and later as Prime Minister. The "Unfortunate Affair" remained on the agenda and led to a political turmoil. Ben-Gurion appointed investigation committees, and asked journalist Haggai Eshed to compose a report about the affair. In 1960 the "Committe of Seven" - seven ministers, stated that Lavon did not give the order to execute the operation in Egypt, and that he did not know about it. Ben-Gurion rejected the conclusions of the committee and requested that a legal committee be appointed. Dov Yosef was a loyal supporter of Ben-Gurion regarding the affair and agreed with him that a Legal committee and not a ministers' committee has to decide "who gave the order". The events related to the affair and the investigations were among the central factors that led Ben-Gurion to resign from the government in 1963.
The two volumes of the report include:
* Ben-Gurion’s address the Minister of Justice Dov Yosef and the attorney general demanding an appointment of an investigation committee that will examine the “committee of seven” and its conclusions.
* Legal analysis of material related to the affair and to the “committee of seven”, done by lawyer Aharon Hoter-Yishai (head of the military legal service and the first military advocate general) and Yitzchak Tunik (later appointed as the third State Comptroller).
* “Who gave the order” - first draft of report about the Lavon Affair by Haggai Eshed [fifteen years later the report was published in a book by Eshed].
Enclosed:
Collection of letters and documents (some are handwritten) from the estate of Minister of Justice Dov Yosef concerning the affair and the investigation committee.
Two thick volumes (hundreds of pages), 33 cm + about 20 documents (tens of leaves). Overall good condition.