Elhanan fir tree

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Elhanan Tannenbaum (also: Elhanan Tenenboim and other spellings, Hebrew אלחנן טננבוים; Born August 12, 1946 ) is an Israeli businessman and former colonel in the Israel Defense Forces . He was caught in the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon from 2000 to 2004 before he was released in the course of an extensive prisoner exchange.

Origin and early life

Tannenbaum was born the son of Polish Holocaust survivors and immigrated to Israel with his parents and sister in 1949. Numerous family members had previously been murdered in the Holocaust. He grew up in the city of Cholon , south of Tel Aviv , where he also attended high school. He was active with the Boy Scouts and later rose to the national leadership of the movement. Tannenbaum began studying economics and political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at the age of 18 and did his military service at the same time. After graduating, he completed officer training and later rose to become colonel of the reserve. He studied business administration at Tel Aviv University and worked as a businessman.

Kidnapping and sharing

In 2000, Tannenbaum was lured from Israel to the United Arab Emirates with the prospect of a lucrative heroin trade . He first traveled to Brussels, where his contacts provided him with a forged passport for onward travel. He was then kidnapped in Dubai and taken to Lebanon . On October 16, 2000, Hezbollah reported it had him under their control. He was arrested after coming to Lebanon with the intention of spying on Hezbollah.

Tannenbaum was released in 2004 as part of a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah. The hotly controversial exchange in Israel was brokered by Germany . 435 prisoners in Israel were released against Tannenbaum and the bodies of the three soldiers Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Souad, who had been kidnapped by Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2000.

Among the 435 people released by Israel were Mustafa Dirani and Sheikh Abdul-Karim Obeid . These two people were captured in 1994 and 1989, respectively, to serve as "bargaining chips" for the replacement of missing Israeli pilot Ron Arad . The Arad family feared that their release would ruin any hope of freeing Arad and tried to prevent his release through legal channels, but were unsuccessful. In early 2006, Hezbollah admitted that Arad had died and his body was lost.

Next life

After his release, Tannenbaum was placed under arrest for the illegal activities that preceded his abduction. He initially claimed his overseas trip was to obtain information about Ron Arad, but later admitted the drug deal was planned. He agreed to plead guilty and described the details of his detention. In return, he was not charged and his arrest was lifted. According to media reports, Israel would have refused to exchange prisoners if the circumstances of the kidnapping had been known. On the basis of the admitted crimes, the Israeli armed forces demoted him in 2007 from colonel of the reserve to private.

In mid-February 2010 it became known that Tannenbaum had been arrested by the Israeli judiciary on charges of unpaid debts. The outstanding debt was approximately two million shekels (about 370,000 euros), including bad checks and outstanding alimony payments.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Hackensberger: Drug Barons in the Bekaa Valley. In: Berliner Zeitung of August 19, 2008, p. 8
  2. ^ Matthew Levitt: Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God. Georgetown University Press, Washington DC 2013, pp. 223f.
  3. ↑ Israeli captive 'lured' by Hezbollah. In: BBC News of October 17, 2000, accessed October 5, 2018.
  4. ^ Mid-East prisoners welcomed home. In: BBC News of January 29, 2004, accessed October 5, 2018.
  5. ↑ Tannenbaum demotion process starts. In: Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2007, accessed October 5, 2018
  6. ↑ Israel News: [1]
  7. ^ Israel doubts freed captive story. In: BBC News of February 19, 2004, accessed October 5, 2018.
  8. ↑ Tannenbaum demoted to private. In: Jerusalem Posts from June 26, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Christmas tree, Elhanan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tanenboym, Elhanan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli businessman and kidnap victim
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1946