Following independence, he then spent time in the
Israel Defense Forces and
Shin Bet before being recruited by the Mossad in the 1960s. During his time in the Mossad, he ran agents in Europe, eventually advancing to the head of the Operations Branch. It was during this time that he helped build and lead teams in
a series of assassinations of Palestinians believed to be responsible for the
Munich Massacre in 1972. In what became known as the
Lillehammer affair, Harari led a team into
Norway where they believed
Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of
Black September operations was living. After identifying and assassinating the target, it was revealed that they had killed an innocent waiter,
Ahmed Bouchiki, who only resembled Salameh. While authorities arrested many of Harari's team, he escaped back to
Israel. A Norwegian case against him was dismissed in January 1999 because of a lack of evidence. Despite this setback, Harari later scored two major successes for the Mossad. Before
Operation Entebbe was launched in July 1976, to free Israeli hostages at
Entebbe International Airport, Harari supposedly took the disguise of an
Italian businessman to enter and reconnoiter the airport. He also helped facilitate the use of
Kenyan air bases to refuel Israeli planes returning from the rescue mission. In January 1979, Harari led a team that killed Ali Hassan Salameh in
Beirut with a car bomb, the same man he had tried to assassinate in Lillehammer years earlier. The blast also killed four innocent bystanders, including a British student and a German nun, and injured 18 other people in the vicinity. At some later point in time, Harari became the Mossad station chief of
Latin America, but based in Israel. Although he is said to have retired after this service, it is unclear if all his Israeli intelligence connections were severed when he left for
Panama. He returned to Israel just before or during the 1989
United States invasion of Panama, which deposed
Manuel Noriega and installed the legitimate presidential victor,
Guillermo Endara. Harari later appeared on Israeli television and denied that he was ever a close advisor of Noriega. He also said that he had escaped by his own means. Harari was played by actor
Moshe Ivgy in
Steven Spielberg's 2005 film
Munich, which depicts the
Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre. Harari died at his home on September 21, 2014, at the age of 87. ==Notes==