---
born: 1928-07-07
category: Other
died: 2014-06-19
location: Vienna, Austria
summary: Avraham Shalom was the director of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency.
tags:
- Person
---

Avraham Shalom was the director of [Shin Bet](/organizations/shin-bet/), [Israel](/places/israel/)'s internal security agency. He was forced to resign his post in late June 1984 due to cover-up charges in connection with the Shin Bet killing in 1984 of two Palestinian hijackers while in custody. Shalom was part of a six-man Israeli delegation that arrived in [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/) in August 1986 to resolve the [Jonathan Pollard](/people/jonathan-pollard/) affair. He, along with Ram Caspi and Hanan Bar-on, had been appointed by [Shimon Peres](/people/shimon-peres/) immediately after Pollard's arrest to conduct an internal investigation. They reported within a week that Pollard was part of a rogue intelligence-gathering unit that operated without any government awareness.[^1]

[Rafael Eitan](/people/rafael-eitan/) had a need to settle old scores with [Yitzhak Hofi](/people/yitzhak-hofi/), the head of [Mossad](/organizations/mossad/), and [Avraham Shalom](/people/avraham-shalom/), Shin Beth's director. This personal ambition and need for revenge drove Eitan's actions, including the recruitment of [Jonathan Pollard](/people/jonathan-pollard/).[^1]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.