Exclusive: Violence feared from Turkish Embassy intruder 3 yrs ago.
By YAAKOV LAPPINInjaz 311(photo credit: Associated Press)
Nadim Injaz, the Palestinian who barricaded himself in the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and sparked panic by threatening to blow it up, was the subject of an undercover police operation in 2007.Back then, he was arrested after being lured by police to a phony meeting at a Tel Aviv hotel because police already feared three years ago that he would try to carry out violent attacks, The Jerusalem Post has learned.RELATED:Gunman broke into UK embassy 4 years agoCommander, soldier convicted in shooting of PalestinianTA rally to remember gay club murdersIn August 2006, Injaz broke into the British Embassy wielding a toy handgun and threatened to commit suicide if he was not granted asylum.The Israel Police Counter- Terrorism Force was called to the scene, and British Embassy officials allowed police to manage the situation, unlike the Turkish officials who blocked access to police on Tuesday evening.Injaz, who claims to be a Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) informant whose life is in danger in the West Bank, was arrested after the British Embassy incident, and later sentenced to a year in prison.Security forces have dismissed Injaz’s claims of being an informant.After being released from prison, Injaz granted Channel 10 an interview in October 2007, in which he repeated claims that he was an informant for the Shin Bet and threatened to carry out attacks if he was not granted Israeli residency.Police watched that interview and became concerned that Injaz would carry out his threats.
“He’s not exactly the picture of mental health,” a source familiar with Injaz’s history told the Post on Wednesday night. “What he wanted then, and what he wants now, is asylum or Israeli residency or citizenship.He was never a source for either the Shin Bet or the police.”The source said Injaz, originally from Ramallah, had been an active thief and had traded in stolen goods, and had a history of drug use.Injaz had no permanent address and was living in hostels, the source added.In 2007, after police arrested him at the Tel Aviv hotel, authorities made all of their evidence on Injaz’s property offenses available to state prosecutors, in a bid to put him behind bars. He was sentenced to three years in prison, and was released late last month, weeks before Tuesday’s Turkish Embassy incident.“Injaz’s theories about being an informant are made up. He knows that one of the criteria for Palestinians to receive an Israeli ID card is to be a former informant, and he tried to exploit that route,” the source said.His custody was extended by the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court by a week on Wednesday.Appearing in a wheelchair with a bandaged leg where he had been shot by a Turkish Embassy security guard, Injaz yelled out, “I call on all informers to kill the Jews! [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas aka] Abu Mazen killed Yasser Arafat by poisoning his pita. All informers should raid the embassies.”Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish diplomatic sources asked Israel to increase security at the embassy in Tel Aviv, the Istanbul-based daily Hurriyet reported.“This incident has proven that there is a security weakness. The results of Tuesday’s attack would have been worse if our security personnel had not been able to act in time,” a Turkish diplomatic source told Hurriyet.
