The suspicions, espionage and surveillance: The FBI's 'Israel File' revealed

ynet reveals approximately 1,700 pages of documents from a secret FBI file, the 'Israel File', released after a legal battle spanning more than 12 years. The documents detail investigations and surveillance by the Bureau of Israelis and Jewish Americans in the 1950s, including Chaim Herzog, Reuven Dafni, and Gideon Rafael, alongside suspicions of leaking American reports to Zionist entities.

ynet reveals documents from a secret FBI file, the 'Israel File' (ISINT), released after a legal battle of more than 12 years led by the IRmep research institute. The file, comprising about 1,700 pages, documents investigations and surveillance by the American Bureau of Israelis and Jewish Americans in the early years of the state. Among the names appearing: Chaim Herzog, who was investigated upon his arrival in Washington as a military attaché in 1950; Reuven Dafni, Israeli consul in Los Angeles, whose hotel stay details were recorded; Gideon Rafael, later Director General of the Foreign Ministry; and Eliezer Livneh, a Knesset member from Mapai. The documents reveal suspicions of leaking American reports to Zionist entities, surveillance of El Al flights and senior Levis officials, and requests to investigate Israeli diplomats. Many names are blacked out, but the visible material provides an unusual picture of the U.S. government's attitude toward Israel in its first decade.