Almagor: Salah Tarif Cannot be Barak’s ‘Envoy’

Almagor: Salah Tarif Cannot be Barak’s ‘Envoy’

Israel National News

2010-01-24

The Almagor terror victims’ group on Sunday called on Defense Minister Ehud Barak not to employ former Arab minister and MK Salah Tarif as his “secret envoy” to the Arab world. Reports Sunday morning said that Tarif had been visiting Arab leaders at Barak’s behest over the past several months. However, Tarif has not been approved for the job by any government oversight panel. When questioned about the appointment, a source close to Barak said that Tarif “is a political advisor to Defense Minister Barak,” and that no official appointment was necessary, since the advising Tarif was undertaking was in the context of his membership in the Labor Party, not as an official government envoy.

Tarif was convicted on bribery and corruption charges in 2004, after receiving money from a PA resident for Tarif to “arrange” an Israeli ID card, in the former MK’s capacity as head of the Knesset Interior Committee. Besides being ineligible for envoy work based on his conviction, said Almagor, the former MK had clearly had contact with elements that constituted security dangers and risks, “including terror elements, both former and current,” the group said.