TEL AVIV - Old buddies?: When longtime residents of the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank town of Nablus looked at their newspapers this week, the photos of new Shin Bet
Chief Yuval Diskin seemed very familiar.
It did not take long for them to realize Diskin served as a Shin Bet operative at the camp during the 1980s, only then they knew him as “Captain Yunes.”
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After he assumed his new post, the new security chief became the talk of the town among Nablus residents. Diskin’s photos in Palestinian newspapers even managed to bring smiles to Balata residents’ faces.
“We knew him as Yunes,” one local said. “Nobody knew his name was Yuval Diskin.”
Camp residents were quick to initiate debates on one unavoidable question: Did Diskin’s appearance change over the years?
“In the ‘80s he was skinnier, and had more hairs on his head, but his stare remained the same,” said leading Fatah activist Tayseer Nasrallah.
Mutual respect
Despite the many years that have passed, Nasrallah said he remembers Diskin well.
“Captain Yunes had a prominent presence,” he said. “He arrested me several times.”
Nasrallah said he was questioned by Diskin, and characterized the new Shin Bet director as a tough interrogator.
“Yunes was very familiar with the Muslim tradition and Arab customs,” Nasrallah said, and recounted how on one occasion Diskin picked him up from his home and took him in for questioning.
“He drove me to prison in his car and didn’t even handcuff me,” he said.
After recalling the old times, Nasrallah also had a special request.
“Send Yunes my regards, he must remember me,” he said. “Even though we were on opposing sides we had mutual respect for each other. He did his job as an intelligence officer and I did my job as a national Palestinian activist.”
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