Zygier’s story to become a book
MELBOURNE journalist Rafael Epstein is planning to publish a book about the life of Ben Zygier, who was last month identified as Israel’s infamous Prisoner X.
MELBOURNE journalist Rafael Epstein is planning to publish a book about the life of Ben Zygier, who was last month identified as Israel’s infamous Prisoner X.
The host of 774 ABC Melbourne’s Drive show, Epstein knew Zygier through Melbourne’s youth movement scene and said that people are intrigued by the story. He plans to release the book in November.
“I want people to understand how a person from Melbourne ended up in a place like that,” Epstein told Fairfax media this week. “Ben’s story is bigger than what happened.
“We know that he worked for Mossad and they thought that he had made a big mistake, but did he make that mistake?
“The issue is that he knew about operations, I suspect. The Israelis clearly had some concerns – that’s the mystery.”
Epstein recently told The AJN that Zygier was easy to remember.
“[He was] really funny, really engaging, very charming, really nice and really decent and very, very sweet as well. He was a really fresh-faced, happy, enjoyable person to be around,” Epstein recalled.
The announcement of the book came a week after Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr criticised his department’s handling of the Zygier case.
Carr said that a review of the case found that it was handled in an unsatisfactory manner.
“The Zygier case was complex and outside the normal bounds of consular activity. However, it is unsatisfactory that there was a lack of clarity over the exercise of consular responsibilities,” Carr said in a statement.
The Australian government is now waiting for Israel to finish its investigation into the case before it decides if it will request more information.
Carr said the Israeli government didn’t provide details about the charges Zygier faced because of a gag order that remains on the case.
He said the Israeli government did confirm that Zygier received more than 50 visits by his family during his nine months in Ayalon prison.
JOSHUA LEVI
‘Prisoner X’ Ben Zygier.
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