Fled the law on a luxury cruise ship - and was wounded by a police officer's gunfire | Back to the Avishai Harel affair

The 'Digging Journalism' podcast returns to the Avishai Harel affair, who fled the law on a luxury cruise ship in 1978, posed as a press photographer, and was shot in the head by a police officer while trying to escape via the ship's smokestack. The article describes Harel's background as a businessman and Tel Aviv nightlife figure, his marriage to model Orly Hida which ended with the discovery of his criminal past, and the legal proceedings that led to his imprisonment.

The 'Digging Journalism' podcast revisits the affair of Avishai Harel, a businessman and Tel Aviv nightlife figure from the 1970s. In September 1978, while released on bail, Harel boarded the Italian ship 'Espresso Livorno' at Haifa port, posing as a press photographer named Avitar Goren, with the assistance of journalist Gila Vertman. After the captain discovered his true identity, the ship returned to Haifa on September 26. Police officers who boarded found Harel climbing the smokestack; a warning shot hit his head. Harel was critically wounded, hospitalized at Rambam, and after recovery was tried and sentenced to 59 months in prison. The article describes his background: he came from Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov, ran a travel agency, married model Orly Hida who divorced him after discovering he was divorced and a father, and that his past included fraud and a prior prison term. Harel married Vertman during a prison furlough and was released early in 1981.