They wouldn’t play his songs, so hit man turned soul singer allegedly returned to old habits
Avner Harari charged for car bomb spree; alleged targets included singer Margalit Tzanani, because she would not play his music on her radio show
When one of Israel’s most notorious underworld hit men got out of jail recently, he decided to reinvent himself as a soul singer.
But Avner Harari, 61, seems to have found old habits hard to break as he struggled to launch his nascent music career.
Harari and an accomplice were charged Friday in the Tel Aviv District Court with attempted murder for a spate of car bombings targeting several Israeli celebrities and a businessman in recent months, including a singer who wouldn’t play his music on her radio show.
Among those targeted was Israeli singer Margalit Tzanani, under whose car a bomb exploded in January. There were no injuries, as Tzanani was not in the car at the time of the blast, but her car was lightly damaged.
According to the indictment, the bomb placed under Tzanani’s car was intended to be a warning to her, after she refused to play Harari’s songs on her radio show.
Harari recently released two singles. The latter, ironically, is titled “A Clean Slate.” (Video is below.)
“I was a criminal in the past, but thank God I’m a musician now, I am fulfilling my dream,” he said in a television interview last month.
“I’m sorry for what I did, I was immature, but now I’m a musician,” he insisted, adding that he hoped to release a full album later in the year.
“I’m doing this for my soul, I have the soul of a singer,” said Harari, who has served more than 30 years in prison for 10 convictions, most recently for trying to kill a mob boss with an anti-tank missile.
Harari reportedly made his mark as a hit man with the Abergil crime family, before branching out on his own.
Harari and accomplice Avishai Ben David, 31, also allegedly threatened Tzanani and David Ben Basat — the manager of the radio station where she works — in a series of text messages.
“This isn’t Europe, this is Israel! This was a promo. If you show up to the radio [station,] you and your son will die,” one of the messages said.
Harari and Ben David were arrested in February after Ben David was caught “red-handed” placing a bomb under the parked car of soccer player Kobi Musa of the Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon Football Club outside of the team’s stadium.
According to Hebrew media reports, the bomb placed under Musa’s car was powerful enough to kill him. The motive for the attempted murder of the soccer player was not clear.
Another target of the car bombings was Meir Shamir, the 65-year-old CEO and chairman of the board of the investment company Mivtach Shamir Holdings.
In December a bomb was set off on a street in the northern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Tzahala where Shamir lives with his family. Police said at the time they found a device hooked up to large batteries, which they believed to be the source of the explosion.
That was the second time that month that Shamir, a former Israeli Air Force pilot, was believed to have been targeted in an intimidation campaign. Earlier in the month, a bomb exploded near Shamir’s car, yielding no injuries.
Harari and Ben David were also charged with conspiracy, weapons manufacturing, weapons possession and extortion, along with other offenses.
Israel has seen a rash of underworld bombings and shootings in recent years. Crime organizations have stepped up their activities in an escalating turf war since several top bosses were arrested in a far-reaching investigation dubbed Case 512.
