Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center opened in 2001. According to its own account, 'It is part of the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC) , an NGO dedicated to the memory of the fallen of the Israeli Intelligence Community.' The IIHCC appears to be the new name of the Center for Special Studies. In 2005 it was located near Gelilot, north of Tel Aviv and, according to the Washington Post 'maintains an office' at the Israeli Defense Ministry. It is headed by (Col. Ret.) Dr. Reuven Erlich. The connections with the Israeli government and the Israel lobby are close and direct and the Centre acts in effect as a transmission belt for Israeli government propaganda.

Matthew Levitt's 'Hamas'

A New York Times review of Matthew Levitt's 2006 book Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad states:

Levitt depends heavily on analyses from the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center of the Center for Special Studies — an Israeli nongovernmental organization created "in memory of the fallen of the Israeli intelligence community" and staffed by its former employees.

Reviewer Steven Erlanger adds:

None of this would matter if Levitt used the center's analyses critically, but he doesn't appear to. As a result, there will be readers of this book who will see it as fronting for the Israeli intelligence establishment and its views.

2006 Lebanon War

A December 2006 report in the Washington Post described the Center as "An Israeli think tank with ties to the military", stating it had "compiled a dossier of video and testimony accusing Lebanese guerrillas of using civilians as human shields in their summer war with Israel. The study, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, was undertaken to rebuff war crimes allegations over Israel's bombing and destruction of residential areas in Lebanon."

The Washington Post report continued:

Israel maintains its attacks against Hezbollah targets in populated areas did not violate international law. It says Hezbollah deliberately operated within civilian areas, raising the civilian death toll.

The 300-page report, from the American Jewish Congress days before its scheduled release, seeks to bolster these claims. It includes documents, photos and video which the report says were declassified, though much of it is similar to information that has appeared on TV newscasts and the Foreign Ministry Web site.

The study, first reported in Tuesday's editions of The New York Times, was prepared by a team led by military intelligence expert Reuven Erlich, a retired lieutenant colonel who heads the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

The private think tank has close ties with the country's military leadership and maintains an office at the Defense Ministry. It compiled the report in conjunction with lawyers from the army and Foreign Ministry.

"I think it could offer a response to allegations of human rights organizations on why the Israel Defense Forces operated in civilian areas," Erlich said.

Arab Bank case

In February 2007, Yossi Melman of Haaretz reported:

Under Ehrlich's management, the information center has become a "pipeline" for information and assessments that the Military Intelligence research division does not want directly associated with it. Thus, for example, Military Intelligence transferred documents on terror organization activities captured by the Israel Defense Forces in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield to Ehrlich's center, where researchers can study them.

Melman added:

The symbiotic connection between Ehrlich's center and Military Intelligence aroused criticism from several members of Malam and Military Intelligence. Some also opposed the center's establishment. The opponents argue that Military Intelligence should not be connected to a propaganda body, at the expense of objective and ideologically unbiased professional analysis.

Funding

Steven Erlanger of the New York Times reported in 2006 that "a spokesman for the center told me that it receives some Israeli government financing."

Disclosures held by the Charity commission show that the Center received £63,410 in 2010 from the Alliance Family Foundation, set up by Lord David Alliance. The Foundation also gave money (in 2011) to the Community Security Trust and the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers.

People

• Reuven Erlich

Contact

• Website terrorism.info

External resources

• Yossi Melman, The terrorist kills, and the bank pays, 14 February 2007.
• Crispin Thorold, Jihad website AqsaTube goes offline, BBC News, 15 October 2008.