Ibrahim Shaheen (1929-1974; Arabic: إبراهيم شاهين) and Inshirah Moussa (1937 - 24 November 2021); Arabic: إنشراح موسى) were an Egyptian couple who worked for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad from June 1967 until their arrest in 1974.[1][2] The couple provided Israel with the intelligence that led to the assassination of Egyptian Chief of Staff Abdul Munim Riad on 9 March 1969 while he was on an official visit to a position near the Bar Lev Line.[3]
Ibrahim Shaheen was a former low-level civil servant of Palestinian origin living in El Arish demoted from his job for disciplinary reasons and was struggling financially.[3] He was recruited by the Mossad after the Israeli invasion of the Sinai in June 1967, when he petitioned the Israeli local military authorities to issue a travel permit for him to return to Egypt where his children lived and help him with food as he was completely penniless and unable to work due to the war conditions.[3] He continued to provide Israel with intelligence in exchange of cash payments which started at US$70 a month and was increased later to US$2500 monthly. During the period 1967-1974, the couple opened a home appliances store in Egypt and lived quite comfortably and traveled frequently inside Egypt and abroad as they were provided with fake identities and Israeli passports obfuscating the tracking of their international travels.[3]
Arrest edit
Ibrahim Shaheen was discovered by Egyptian Intelligence (on a Soviet tip-off) on 4 August 1974 after the signal from his transmitter was picked up and tracked to his home. He was arrested the following day whilst his wife was on a visit to Israel (via Italy). Inshirah was arrested upon her return to Cairo on 24 August 1974 and arrested immediately after boarding a taxi at the airport. The couple was tried and sentenced to death by hanging. Ibrahim Shaheen was executed in Egypt in 1977, whilst Sadat pardoned his wife and 3 children and arranged for them to travel to Israel after a plea from the Israeli authorities during his visit to Israel in November 1977. Inshirah converted to Judaism along with her three children, changed her name to Dina Ben David and continued to live in Israel until she passed away on 24 November 2021 in Tel Aviv where her funeral ceremonies were held according to the Jewish religion. Their case was widely publicized in the Israeli media in the end of the 1980s.[4][5]
Popular culture edit
In 1977, Inshirah Moussa had her first television appearance after her release from prison as she was interviewed by Egyptian anchor Samir Sabri. In 1995, the couple were the subject of an Egyptian 24-episode TV series called as-Suqut fi Bi'r Sab' السقوط في بئر سبع (Falling in Beersheba). Saeed Saleh and Isaad Younis portrayed the couple.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Black, Ian; Morris, Benny (1992). Israel's secret wars: a history of Israel's intelligence services. Grove Press. p. 294. ISBN 978-0-8021-3286-4.
- ^ "Deaths ordered in Spy Case". The Press-Courier. 25 November 1974. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
- ^ a b c d عبد الرزاق, علاء (24 November 2021). "وفاة انشراح موسى.. جاسوسة عفا عنها السادات وسافرت لإسرائيل واعتنقت اليهودية". Aljazeera. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
- ^ Bushinsky, Jay (30 November 1989). "Israeli editors stumble on their checkbooks". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 1 October 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
- ^ "Family of hanged Israeli spy speaks up". New Straits Times. 28 November 1989. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
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