The criminal trial against GSS agent provocateur Avishai Raviv will resume in several weeks, but a civil damages case in respect to Avishai Raviv's activities is about to begin in the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court.
Kiryat Arba Mayor Tzvi Katzover is suing the State of Israel for the damages he and his fellow residents suffered at the hands of Raviv in the course of his "work" for the GSS.
In addition, Katzover is exercising his privilege of posing relevant questions to the party he is suing, and "hopes that the State will not find excuses not to answer."
Katzover claimed that Raviv's behavior, while he was employed by the State, gave him and the Jewish residents of Kiryat Arba a bad name. The State, in turn, requested that the court reject Katzover's claims at the outset.
Justice Boaz Okon, who is deliberating on the case, still hasn't issued a decision in respect to the request. However, he has allowed both sides to send questionnaires.
The questionnaire which Katzover's lawyer Dr. Chaim Misgav sent the State includes 37 questions. Some of them are:
Does Raviv still receive payments or other benefits from the GSS?
Who in the State Prosecution knew about Raviv's methods after the Oslo accords were signed on September 13, 1993?
How many criminal files were opened against Raviv until the murder of Rabin? Who closed these files, and were they closed because they supposedly "lacked public interest?"
Did Raviv function according to the guidelines of the head of the GSS, or were his activities approved only after he had initiated them?
Would it be correct to determine that the Attorney General did not know that 16 criminal files against Raviv had been closed, and that he actively opposed closing the criminal file on the issue of the induction ceremony of recruits to the Eyal "underground" on Mount Herzel, an event which was photographed by the Israeli media, even though at least one TV reporter, Eitan Oren knew that the whole ceremony was contrived?
Did the Stae Prosecution and the GSS not understand, by September 22 1995, a month-and a-half before the murder of Rabin, that the broadcasting of the induction ceremony on Mount Herzel was a felony? Shouldn't the police have taken immediate action against Raviv and the reporter that same night, due to the provocative and racist remarks they made, which included threats to murder Arabs and "Jews who are not Jews?"
Was the State Prosecution and the GSS aware of the well- publicized photograph of Raviv, in which he was seen waving a gun and wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Rabin and the slogan "No rest for traitors?"
Did the State Prosecution and the GSS know about Raviv's part in distributing the picture of Rabin in SS uniform at a rally in Zion Square? Why didn't the State Prosecution do anything about this?
Didn't the GSS and the Prosecution know that the proclamation found on Baruch Goldstein's grave in Hebron which, among other things said, "Death to the Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin" had been placed there by Raviv?
Why was Raviv permitted to continue his schemes, and did the GSS seek to foster the feeling that Hebron and Kiryat Arba residents were behind this proclamation?
Didn't the GSS and the State Prosecution understand that in April 1995, an hour before the proclamation was publicized, Raviv was leading the entire population toward a social disaster with the help of provocative declarations which incited to murder and falsely sought to accuse a sector of the Jewish community of perpetrating such acts?
Why didn't the GSS and the State Prosecution tell Yossi Sarid, a minister in Rabin's government, who had demanded that the Jews be evicted from Hebron in reaction to the "murder" in Halhoul to which Raviv had confessed? Didn't they know that Raviv was boasting about the murder, although there was no basis for his claims, and that his only motive was to cause provocation?
What is the true reason that the GSS continued to employ Raviv, despite his repeated failures and the warnings of his superiors that he refrain from provocative activities?
In the end, if the entire endeavor failed, and the murder of the Prime Minister wasn't prevented, what was the purpose of the entire Champagne Project, which lasted for many years, and which cost the state a tremendous amount of money and caused much suffering to many Jews and Arabs, and defamed Katzover, the claimant, and the residents of Kiryat Arba and Hebron?
How will the GSS and the State Prosecution react if Raviv claims, in his defense, that he did report on Amir's intention to murder Rabin?
