Out of Africa

By Gidi Weitz

Forty-two years have gone by since a Life magazine photographer took the iconic picture of Yosi Ben Hanan, the courageous operations officer from the Israel Defense Forces' 7th Brigade, standing in the Suez Canal and flaunting a Kalachnikov rifle. The photo, which appeared on the magazine's cover, became a symbol of the Israeli victory in the Six-Day War. Six years later, during the Yom Kippur War, Ben Hanan fought in the Golan Heights together with his friend Major General (res.) Avigdor (Yanush) Ben Gal, at the time commander of the 7th Brigade. Afterward, Ben Hanan rose through the army ranks to become a major general, and at the end of his IDF career took a trip from Europe to China with another buddy, Major General (res.) Meir Dagan, current director of the Mossad espionage agency. The three pals - the hero of the Six-Day War, the GOC Northern Command and the Mossad chief - are at the center of the arms deals Israel carried out with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC?) early in this decade, as a civil war raged in the country and official Israeli policy forbade selling it weapons. In 1997, Ben Hanan was appointed head of Sibat, the Defense Ministry's Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export unit. Its task is to promote Israeli military exports, sell IDF surplus equipment and issue export permits. Ben Hanan, who held the post until last year, won high praise for his achievements: During his tenure Israel tripled its military exports. The Defense Ministry did not ignore this record, and a few months ago Ben Hanan was appointed head of the ministry's procurement delegation in Europe. The way he handled Israel's security relations with the DRC speaks volumes about his road to success in Sibat. Israel and the DRC were close partners for years. Mobutu Sese Seko, the brutal and corrupt leader of Zaire (as the DRC was known until 1997) for 32 years, took a parachuting course in Israel. According to a secret memorandum drawn up in 2001 by Dr. Moshe Ami Oz, director of the Defense Ministry's external relations department, about Israel's security relations with Zaire in the Mobutu period, Israel trained divisions of the African nation's army, held officers' courses there while Mobutu's ruthless regime was in power and sent to Zaire a delegation - which at its height numbered 15 officers - in order to preserve the security relations between the two countries. In the 1980s, Israeli exports to Zaire totaled some $30 million. But in the early 1990s, when Zaire plunged into a vicious civil war, the Israeli delegation was withdrawn from Kinshasa, the capital. The secret survey notes, "With the death of President Mobutu and the invasion of Zaire by armies from the neighboring countries and the rise to power of the rebel leader Laurent Kabila, a civil war is under way, including massacres." In 2000, Yossi Kamisa, a former member of the Police Special Anti-Terror Unit (Yamam) who was hired by the tycoon Dan Gertler to provide security for his diamond business and assist in training the DRC army (see Haaretz Magazine, July 3, 2009), applied to Sibat for permits to conduct negotiations with the Laurent Kabila government. In his 2004 lawsuit against Sibat, Kamisa claimed that in a meeting with Ben Hanan, the latter suggested that he co-opt his good friend Meir Dagan, then a private citizen, to the project. (Ben Hanan denied this vehemently in his statement to the court.) Sibat turned down Kamisa's request, on the grounds that it "is contrary to Israel's policy of defense aid." A letter sent on behalf of Ben Hanan to Kamisa in 2001 explained that his request was rejected because in the period when Laurent Kabila ruled the DRC "the policy of the government of Israel was not to authorize the sale of military equipment or security know-how to that country." The same refrain is repeated in different variations both in the statement Sibat submitted to the court in its defense and in other documents that have been obtained by Haaretz: "Israel behaved with great caution during the rule of Laurent Kabila, because of the worldwide policy toward that regime owing to its deprivations of civil rights." Israel was in fact appalled by the bloodbath in the DRC and refused to pursue a business-as-usual attitude. A letter sent to the Defense Ministry in November 2000 by Avraham Toledo, the Foreign Ministry representative, described the situation: "The [DRC] is ruled by a dictator named Kabila who took power in the wake of a coup, and since then a bloody civil war has raged ... Until Congo returns to democracy ... we will not authorize the sale of firearms." Kamisa's request, as part of his security contacts with the DRC, to bring to Israel the country's deputy chief of staff, Pascal Mayumba, was approved by the Foreign Ministry, though not before it sent the following cable to the Israeli embassy in Kinshasa: "In light of the serious accusations which have lately been leveled against Congo army personnel in the international media, including in the United States, concerning massacres of the civilian population, we must avoid giving the visit any publicity." Israel's ambassador to Congo, Nicole Gad, was asked to inform Mayumba "that in light of the war situation now prevailing, it is not to be expected that his visit will produce a deal for military goods in the present circumstances." Despite this clear attitude and despite what Ben Hanan himself told Kamisa, documents obtained by Haaretz show that Ben Hanan worked to advance an arms deal between Israel Military Industries and the Kinshasa regime. Both Ben Gal and Dagan were involved in the deal, and Ben Hanan, far from disqualifying himself from considering the requests of his former comrades in arms, as standard procedure obliges, pushed the deal ahead vigorously, while keeping the top ranks of the Defense Ministry constantly updated. The mediator of the deal was the diamond tycoon Dan Gertler; the sponsor was Ariel Sharon. Friendship and cooperation The story began in the summer of 2000, when Gertler asked Ben Gal to look into the possibility of Israeli military aid for the DRC army. In September of that year, Ben Gal wrote secretly to Ben Hanan, noting that "Gertler is operating within the framework of his business in Congo and is very close to the president of the country, [Laurent] Kabila. The president would like to equip his army and his other units urgently with Israeli equipment from IDF surplus and from the defense industries." Finally, Ben Gal requested permission to meet with senior DRC officials, and in the meantime recruited Dagan to the team. Standard procedure is that a letter of recommendation from Sibat is issued only after authorization has been given to conduct negotiations with the country in question. At that stage, Ben Gal did not possess such authorization. Ben Hanan sent copies of the letter to senior Defense Ministry officials, including the director general, Amos Yaron, and also fired off another letter to the official in charge of security in the ministry, Yehiel Horev, reporting his meeting with Gertler and Ben Gal. In this letter, Ben Hanan emphasized that "Gertler will introduce the retired generals Ben Gal and Dagan to the president of Congo and members of his staff ... Gertler asked me to point out to you that he has not dealt and does not intend to deal with security matters in Congo. He is interested solely in diamonds. His readiness to introduce the guests from Israel to the president is due to his desire to advance the prospects of exports with Israel." 'Brave legacy' Ben Gal had planned to fly to Kinshasa to meet with Kabila in January, but one of the president's bodyguards had other plans. On January 16, as part of a failed coup attempt, Rashidi Kasereka shot Kabila, who was then flown to Zimbabwe and pronounced dead two days later. He left a dubious legacy: a civil war of two and a half years that claimed more than a million victims, and not all from firearms - some died from disease and starvation. Power was seized by the president's son, Joseph Kabila, not yet 30, who until then had been chief of staff. These historic developments were not lost on Ben Hanan. Just three days after Laurent Kabila's death was officially announced, he sent Joseph Kabila a condolence message stating, "This nefarious, tragic and painful event should not attenuate your spirit and your strength to carry out your father's brave legacy." The letter also contains the following immortal lines: "In these days of transfer of power, I would like to confirm our commitment by supporting you and your people and to stand up behind your needs, as were presented by you to Gen. (res.) Ben Gal and Gen. (res.) Dagan. Please be free to elaborate these matters and others during the coming visit of Gen. (res.) Ben Gal and Gen. (res.) Dagan to D.R.C. I wish you to become a great leader to your people and I hope you shall accomplish your late father's paramount goals." In April 2001, a military delegation from the DRC arrived in Israel. Dagan and Ben Gal, the hosts, asked to have the visit classified as secret. The application from the bureau of President Kabila, containing the names of the three senior visitors, was transmitted by Gertler. The visit received the sponsorship of the Defense Ministry, which provided the group with an escort, allowed them to visit military industries and arranged meetings with a number of ranking officials in the defense establishment, including the head of the General Staff operations branch, Major General Dan Harel, director general Yaron and of course Sibat head Ben Hanan. At the conclusion of the visit, Dagan and Ben Gal sent a secret summation to the Defense Ministry, expressing thanks for the considerable assistance they had received. This visit, too, was held without Ben Gal having a permit to conduct negotiations. Even before Sharon's recommendation, in April 2001, Israel Military Industries (IMI) sought permission from the Defense Ministry to enter into negotiations with the DRC in connection with training and equipping the country's Presidential Guard. However, the Foreign Ministry clung to its view that Israel must not engage in arms trading with the DRC. The IMI request was turned down. When IMI appealed the decision, Ben Hanan approached the Defense Ministry's deputy director general for policy planning and external relations, Brigadier General (res.) Kuti Mor, sent along the documents pertaining to the DRC deal and then asked Mor "to arrange the required diplomatic authorization so that I can give the go-ahead." Mor was nothing if not efficient. He explained to the Foreign Ministry that the transaction held out the option "for an additional procurement worth tens of millions of dollars" and potentially even for "political influence." The coveted Foreign Ministry authorization arrived in September 2001, and later Ben Gal received from Amos Yaron authorization to hold negotiations with the DRC authorities. The talks went well, and in the months that followed delegations from the Presidential Guard visited Israel to receive instruction and special training at an IMI facility, while Israeli-made weapons were sent to the DRC. All told, the deal between IMI and the DRC government was worth no more than a few million shekels. Unstable continent The Defense Ministry declined to comment. In a court affidavit, Ben Hanan stated that immediately after Ben Gal approached him, he apprised the Defense Ministry's senior level of this and informed Ben Gal that an embargo had been imposed on the DRC, so that although the ministry would agree to an examination of the DRC's needs, "I made it clear to him that we were not authorizing negotiations or exports in practice." Ben Hanan's statement to the court added that the contacts Ben Gal had held with the DRC were in the nature of "overtures" and that he had emphasized to Ben Gal that he was obliged to obtain a permit to conduct negotiations as well as an export permit before a deal could be implemented, and that Ben Gal had in fact received these permits. In his statement to the court, Ben Hanan did not hide his ties with Dagan and Ben Gal. "Dagan is a close friend," he declared, adding that "my attitude toward Mr. Ben Gal in [response to] his approaches to me was a friendly one, and it is no secret that we have been friends for many years." He added, "In retrospect I realize that the key person in regard to the security activity that unfolded in Congo was Mr. Dan Gertler." Kamisa's suit against Sibat is still being heard. "I do not make the national assessment for the United Nations, for the Foreign Ministry or for human rights," Yanush Ben Gal said in a conversation with Haaretz. "I acted with the authorization of the Israeli departments, which gave me all the permits. Nothing was done without a permit." There were many people who said that we should not have cooperated with the Kabila government. "Believe me, I don't know why. The whole of Africa consists of unstable countries and tribal wars, and there are wars being fought on the basis of the colonial division of borders. East Congo, the lakes region, where all kinds of countries have interests, is always at war." How did you meet Gertler? "Through his grandfather [Moshe Schnitzer, one of the founders of the diamond industry in Israel]. Gertler is very talented, very sharp, a superb businessman and a decent person. I have only good things to say about him." How did he connect you to the DRC? "Gertler told me that Kabila was looking for security guards and asked if I could go there and check out the needs. He had nothing to do with it beyond that. Then I went and got all the permits from the Defense Ministry. I flew down, checked things out, persuaded them, and a few months later they came here to train, about 30-40 people, at IMI's Academy for Advanced Security & Anti-Terror Training. They also bought some light arms. The size of the deal was around $400,000 to $500,000, including the training here. It didn't continue because they didn't have money." What was your impression of Joseph Kabila? "A very intellectual person who knows how to listen, someone who doesn't talk much, but listens and makes decisions. Against the traumatic background of his father's assassination, he was interested in whether Israel knows how to safeguard VIPs and sells light arms." What was Meir Dagan's involvement in the transaction? "Dagan wasn't in the picture. I don't know why he was brought in. I was the one. My role in practice was to persuade them to buy from IMI and to train at IMI within the framework of security exports. Dagan was there with me once but not after that." Gertler's strategic consultant, Lior Horev, stated in response: "In 2001, Gertler came to the authorized officials in the Defense Ministry in order to report in an orderly, official and documented manner on an approach made by the Congo government to receive security aid. In his meeting with Sibat, Gertler stated that he was not interested in being involved in a transaction like this, because he does not do business in the security realm and has no interest in benefiting directly or indirectly from any security transactions that might take place between authorized officials from Israel and the Congo government." W