Isser Be ' eri Isser Be ' eri ( , born 1901 , died January 1958 ) was the director of the Haganah Intelligence Service in Israel and was responsible for helping to reorganise Israeli intelligence services in 1948 , as well as knowingly ordering the execution of an innocent man , Meir Tobianski . He was the founding director of the Israeli Intelligence Department ( between 1948 and 1949 ) which later became the Military Intelligence Directorate . Biography . Born in Będzin in Germany ( today in Poland ) , Be ' eri was one of a group of young men known as the " Six from Bedzin " , who were later the founders of Migdal . Be ' eri made aliyah to Palestine in 1921 and became a member of Kibbutz Artzi . He worked in construction until 1938 . Between 1944 and 1945 he managed Israel Military Industries , and from 1946 to 1947 managed the Na ' aman factory . Haganah intelligence . Be ' eri joined the Haganah in 1938 and was in its work battalions , before becoming commander of the Kfar Giladi region . In 1947 he joined Shai , and in February 1948 was appointed its head . On 30 June 1948 Shai was disbanded as part of a reorganization of the Israeli secret service . Three agencies were created : Shin Bet ( Shabak ) , Mossad and Military Intelligence Directorate , with Be ' eri appointed the Director of the latter . Tobianski drumhead court martial . Meir Tobianski was a Major in the British army during the Second World War and was a captain in the Haganah . During the 1948 Arab – Israeli War , Tobianski was working for the Jerusalem Electric Corporation and had knowledge of the exact location of several arms manufacturers in Jerusalem . These factories had received direct hits from Jordanian artillery . On 30 June 1948 , Tobianski was taken into custody and interrogated by Be ' eri , David Kron , Binyamin Gibli and Avraham Kidron during a drumhead court - martial . Be ' eri had already prepared a firing squad consisting of six soldiers from the Palmach Yiftach Brigade , which was in control of the Jerusalem corridor zone . Tobianski was found guilty and executed in Bayt Jiz , where his body was buried . Tobianski had received neither a lawyer nor a right to appeal , and his case was not reviewed by a higher court . Be ' eri knew of his innocence , but still ordered his execution . On 3 July 1949 , David Ben - Gurion issued a public exoneration of Tobianski and restitution of his rank and rights . Following Tobianski ' s posthumous rehabilitation , Be ' eri was forced to resign as chief of military intelligence . In November 1949 Isser Be ' eri stood trial in the Tel Aviv District Court for Tobianski ' s wrong execution . The civilian court found that , as there was a ceasefire in effect at the time , any information supposedly passed by Tobianski could not have served the Jordanian artillery . Be ' eri was found guilty of manslaughter and given a symbolic punishment of one day of prison , " from sunrise to sunset , 30 days after sentencing " , before which he was pardoned by the president , Chaim Weizmann . Be ' eri reportedly left the trial a broken man and ensconced himself in his home until his fatal heart attack in January 1958 . Be ' eri ' s three fellow interrogators , Binyamin Gibli , David Kron and Avraham Kidron , who also were Tobianski ' s judges in the afternoon field court - martial , they themselves were not charged and tried in court . Later they reached high military and civilian positions . Gibli , who had acted as presiding judge , prosecutor , interrogator , witness and record - keeper in Tobianski ' s court martial , also appeared as a witness for the prosecution in Be ' eri ' s trial . In his memoir David Kron wrote that despite the official investigation , he was convinced that Tobianski had been guilty and that Be ' eri had the full authority to act the way he had . Later Shabtai Teveth placed the fault with Gibli ' s overbearing ambitions and manipulation , personal traits that led to the Lavon affair .