Cohen, Eli

(1924–65)

   Israel espionage agent. Cohen grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and was active in a Zionist youth movement. He studied engineering at Farouk University, but was thrown out in 1949 with other Jewish students. During the Sinai Campaign (1956), he was imprisoned, and then expelled from Egypt. In 1957 he reached Israel, where he joined the intelligence services. He was sent to the Argentine, and from there travelled to Syria under the assumed Arab name of Camile Amin Thabbet. He soon became friendly with important personages in the government and the army. At times he would leave Syria for business trips abroad, at which time he would resume his real identity and visit his wife and children in Tel Aviv.

   In February 1965, Cohen was arrested and given a public trial before two army officers. The trial was obviously staged, and he was refused a defence lawyer. He was sentenced to death for espionage and despite appeals by heads of states and on behalf of the pope, he was publicly hanged in Damascus. Israel had offered to exchange all Syrian prisoners in her hands for the commutation of the death penalty. Her requests for Cohen’s body to be returned were also rejected, and he was buried in the Damascus Jewish cemetery.