Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

When Kedar landed in Israel, he was arrested as he exited the

plane. He was tried in early 1962 in a military court and sentenced to

life in prison, where he was known as “Prisoner-X.” He was freed af-

ter 17 years. A fellow convict in the Ramle jail was Avraham (Avri)

Elad, who was sentenced for treason in maintaining contacts with a

foreign intelligence agency. The details of this story, which were not

published for a long time, illustrate the problem of finding the right

people for espionage missions. Although the suitable person for clan-

destine operations may well be one with criminal traits, on the other

hand he may not be trustworthy.

KEDMI, YA’ACOV (1950– ).Born Yasha Kazakob in Russia, in 1969

by pure chance Kedmi obtained an exit visa from the Soviet Union and

immigrated to Israel. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Kedmi was a com-

rade-in-arms of future Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. Later he be-

came active in Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union to Israel and in

trying to prevent emigrants from moving to the United States, as many

did in those days. The Israeli high echelons asked him to work on this

matter secretly. During Menachem Begin’s premiership, Kedmi joined

Nativ, and in 1992 he was appointed its director, replacing David Bar-

To v. Under Kedmi, Nativ was accused of spending money without

proper accounting. Some even demanded the disbanding of Nativ,

which competed with the other Israeli intelligence organizations. This

did not materialize, but because of strained relations with Prime Minis-

ter Benjamin Netanyahu, Kedmi resigned from Nativ in 1999. He be-

came a supporter of Barak in his campaign for the Israeli premiership.

However, Kedmi did not himself enter politics at once, as many antici-

pated, but went into private business. Later he established a political

party for new immigrants, but he was never elected to the Knesset.

KELMAN, URIEL.See NEW ZEALAND PASSPORTS.

KHALAF, SALAH (1934–1991). Better known as Abu Iyad. In 1948

Khalaf fled Jaffa, the town of his birth. He studied in Cairo in the

1950s and was a founder-member of the General Union of Palestinian

Students (GUPS) in Egypt, and Yasser Arafat’s assistant in it (1952);

a founder-member of Al-Fatah (1958–1959); security and counterin-

telligence executive officer of the Palestine Liberalization Organiza-

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