Photo: Lior Mizrachi

For decades, he was known only by his first initial, A., but today, we can write his name in full: Avi Arieli. During his long tenure in the Shin Bet, he served in a variety of positions, but for the last 15 years, he was a member of the Jewish terror unit, acting as its head from 2009 to 2013.

As its name suggests, the unit is in charge of thwarting terror plots by radical settler groups, often made up of teenagers, against Arabs. Attacks of that kind might include assaults on individuals, damage to property, or harassment. Arieli, who wears a knitted kippah, is a nephew of Rabbi Chaim Leib Mishkovsky ztz”l, a renowned talmid chacham and a first cousin (by marriage) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ztz”l. He is also a cousin of the gaon Rav Asher Arieli shlita, one of the roshei yeshivah of Mir.

Last week, domestic terrorism was once again in the news after the Shin Bet acknowledged that it had arrested five yeshivah students in late December, aged 15 to 17, from the Pri Ha’aretz yeshivah in Rechelim, in the Shomron. The Shin Bet suspected that the five had thrown rocks at a passing vehicle in October, resulting in the death of Aisha Rabi, 45, a mother of eight, from the village of Bidia. Her husband, Yakoub Rabi, was lightly wounded in the attack.

Four of the five suspects were released last week. But lawyers for some of the youths now claim their clients were subjected to harsh interrogations over many days and should never have been arrested in the first place. Parents of the youths further say their boys were deprived of sleep, and not permitted to lay tefillin or daven. For four days, they were also not allowed to meet with their lawyers. The parents set up round-the-clock protests, and even appealed to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked.

The Shin Bet, for its part, publicized some of the evidence it had gathered, including documentation of the boys burning an Israeli flag, as well as photos showing an Israeli flag alongside a swastika in one of the boys’ rooms. This is but the latest episode in an ongoing battle between the Shin Bet and radical settler groups. In the past, the Shin Bet has been reprimanded by the judiciary for using “special interrogative measures” that includes disproportionate psychological means to extract information from Jewish minors.

In an interview with Mishpacha, Arieli said he could well imagine what went on in the interrogation room.

“They weren’t tortured,” he told Mishpacha. “Torture is illegal. The interrogators do use psychological means, however. Otherwise, it would be virtually impossible to collect information.”

What, then, does take place in the interrogating room?

“Every detainee who was involved in terror, whether they are 16 or 15, comes to the interrogation with eyes and mouth closed. We have to use subtle, sophisticated means to extract information, and any act that is the least bit unconventional must first receive authorization from the district attorney and a legal advisor. That’s why I found it amusing when Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said she’d speak to the state attorney about the boys. The attorneys take part in the entire process and know everything that goes on in advance.”

Do you think that 15- to 17-year-old Jewish youths are involved in terror?

“Jewish terror today is in the hands of minors, who exhibit a shallow, childish, unintelligent mindset. There are no members of the Jewish underground today who are adults. Today, what we’re dealing with are fringe elements, including at-risk youth who have been thrown out of their educational and social frameworks and who are driven by nothing but anarchy.”

Is there something these educational institutions can do to prevent this kind of behavior?

“For years I’ve been telling the heads of the settler educational institutions: Check what’s going on under the surface. Check also the yeshivah that the detained boys came from. Is it possible that your students are throwing rocks from hilltops, like Arabs?

“In the years when I headed the organization, not one Palestinian was killed by Jews, but I did a tremendous amount of fieldwork. I held hundreds of discussions with teachers so they would take responsibility for those youths. And I served as father and mother for countless youths who were candidates for extremism because of poverty or neglect. I’d sit for hours with heads of educational institutions and beg them not to throw out this or that student. I knew that was a surefire formula leading to the street and these irrational activities.”

What about the government? Are there steps it could take to prevent this radicalization?

“I was in contact with regional councils where there are unauthorized hilltop settlements, and I pressured them to connect these homes to the water and power grid, and to send social workers to these families. They’d tell me, ‘But those hills don’t belong to us,’ and I’d tell them, they absolutely do belong to them, they are the responsibility of Am Yisrael.

“The most recent incident involves students, not dropouts, and that hurts even more. But anyone who is involved with education knows about the phenomenon of hidden dropouts, and they, too, need to be dealt with.”

I’ve heard that the Jewish terror unit of the Shin Bet works behind closed doors and that other members of the agency aren’t aware of its activities. Is that true?

“They work alone. Prime ministers don’t even want to know what we do. They don’t want a report. As far as they are concerned, we have carte blanche to do what needs to be done.”

More than that, Arieli was unwilling to share.

A source from the Shin Bet’s Arab terror unit told me, “No one ventures to the floor where the Jewish terror unit of the Shin Bet is located. Not only is it off limits, but no one cares to discover the name of a neighbor, a childhood friend, or a relative among the names of suspects under scrutiny. It’s hard to imagine being on the staff of this unit, having to work undercover among your own people.”

That could be the reason why the organization, for all its stellar work in the Arab sector, has been unable to crack the code of the extreme right-wing youth activists. Even when working as double agents, and even by way of interrogation, Shin Bet officials have failed time and again to glean the information they seek.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 744)