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"A Detective of a Different Race": The Death of the Last Tel Aviv Cowboy
For years, the "detectives" imposed terror on the city's criminals.
Detectives were known for their toughness, and this week Michael Ben Avner, the unit man who used to "show humanity towards suspects," passed away.
Ben Avner's friends, nicknamed "Colombo", told of a wild animal that always tricked criminals
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Tel Aviv Jaffa
police
Eli Ashkenazi
Saturday, 27 November 2021, 10:00 Updated: 10:01
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In the 1970s, a detective series was broadcast weekly on Israeli television, bearing the name of the police investigator, the hero of the series, "Colombo."
Colombo's appearance and demeanor made up an anti-hero figure;
His dress was sloppy and his interrogations seemed confused and laden with trivial questions.
But it was precisely this image that played into his hands and each episode ended with a resounding decipherment of a crime.
In those years, a detective in the central unit of the Tel Aviv district was remarkably similar in his conduct to the character of the detective from the Los Angeles police, and he was immediately nicknamed "Colombo" until few knew that his name was Michael (Micho) Ben-Avner.
A week ago, Ben-Avner passed away.
"He was a legend. A policeman and a detective in every way.
I had the right to learn from him, "said retired senior lawyer Adv. Amir Gur. Michael Ben-Avner was born in 1945 in Rehovot to Sarah-Rachel and Dr. Yehuda Ben-Avner.
The family was a religious family that belonged to the "Hapoel Mizrahi" current.
Yehuda Ben-Avner was born in Germany as a teenager and immigrated to Eretz Israel with his sister in the 1930s.
Their parents remained in Germany and were murdered during the Holocaust.
The son changed his last name from Markat to Ben-Avner, after his father.
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"He was a legend. A policeman and a detective in every aspect of his life." Ben Avner (Photo: courtesy of the family)
Yehuda Ben-Avner was an educator and was appointed principal of a school in Be'er Sheva, and the family moved to the developing city of the Negev. The boy, Michael, liked more the spaces outside the classrooms and in his youth a lot of going to court in the city and following legal hearings. He decided that in the future he would engage in crime, as a police officer or as a lawyer.
After he was discharged from service in the IDF, he enlisted in the police and was assigned as a detective in the central police unit in Tel Aviv.
The central unit was considered the terror of the criminals and Ben-Avner stood out in it precisely because of different qualities from those that characterized his tough members of the unit. Journalist Yosef Walter in Maariv.
Gore notes that Ben-Avner "showed humanity towards victims of crime and also towards suspects. Using force was a last resort. Not everyone had such a degree of restraint."
"At first they thought he was probably an Ahbel policeman who could be worked on. But the blow was not long in coming. It turned out that beneath the amiable shell lurks a professional, tough detective who exploits his cunning to outwit the criminals and expose their vulnerabilities. "From Ben-Avner, he works like Colombo. Since then, the nickname has stuck with him," Walter wrote.
"The rudeness he showed towards the criminals was perceived as suspicious behavior," she wrote about Ben Avner's work in Maariv (Photo: Official website, Maariv archive)
A space animal with a phenomenal memory
Walter described him as a "detective who belongs to a rare race of police officers whose profession is their hobby. A Tel Aviv cowboy, who speaks in the jargon of a Jerusalemite, a hybrid of the Azoulay policeman and the American detective from the TV series who gave him the nickname. As a law enforcer but also as an educator. When Colombo speaks it is something between collecting testimony and preaching morality. The value of honor occupies an important place on his scale. 'Just as a police officer has respect, so does the offender, he says.' The offender's right to escape. '', Walter quoted him.
Gore, who joined the unit in the late 1970s, said that Ben-Avner "excelled in his special ability to learn and get to know the area and the Bedouins. He also had a phenomenal memory and he knew all the connections in the criminal world. He was a wild animal."
According to Gore, "few devoted as many hours of work as he devoted. He worked beyond what was required of him."
Crime reporter Bucky Nae said that "they would say of 'Colombo' that he used to sleep on the back bench in the detective car, until the shout 'thief' was heard. Then he would jump out of his sleep like a snake bite, run first, and catch the thief. "His friends. They parked the car in front of the pool in Rabin Square, which was then Kings of Israel Square, and shouted: 'Thief.' Micho jumped from the car, straight into the pool water."
Terrified Tel Aviv criminals.
Ben Avner and the people of the "section" (Photo: courtesy of the family)
It is told of one night when his team laid a hand on criminals in three different arenas in Tel Aviv. It started with the arrest of two burglars at a watch shop on Allenby Street. Colombo caught the two sleeping inside the store wearing IDF uniforms. After waking them, he scolded them: "Shame on you, what kind of burglars are you who fall asleep in the middle of work?". The two apologized to him and explained that they were tired after the hard work of breaking the wall . when he asked them to mediate army clothes, explained that since they had no money for travel, uniforms and traveling from Ashdod to Tel Aviv hitched. "We are breaking shit", admitted him.
An hour later been arrested by Colombo and his groundbreaking restaurant known neighborhood probably called "safe "The burglar was already inside a jewelry store when he was arrested." Colombo did not like him because instead of playing like a man he would whine that the police were treating him for no wrong in his palm, "Maariv wrote about the rivalry that grew between the two.
Two hours later, at three in the morning, detectives spotted the suspected Audi driver. Detectives surrounded his car and saw inside it a well-known Jaffa criminal who belonged to the "gang of bombers" who was responsible for several assassinations in the underworld. Colombo and the offender fought each other until the offender was convicted. An explosive device was found in the car.
Not only did the journalists like him, the writer Rina Frank-Mitterney also based on him one of the protagonists in her book "Fragile Life". The protagonist is Detective Michael Ben Avner, known as "Colombo". In one of his monologues he says: "There are no culprits, there are life stories."
Daphne, his daughter, said that "he was a wonderful father who spoke to us at eye level and from his life experience. He was not judgmental of others and always had insights."
She says he was full of joy of life and she remembers how her classmates would wait to hear that he would be the parent to accompany the class on trips.
"He used to play and frolic with the kids and they really liked him," she said.
Occasionally he would also come to schools, to lectures on his work as a detective.
Dedicated to Hapoel Beer Sheva since the dawn of his youth.
Ben Avner (Photo: Courtesy of the family)
Another great love of his was the Hapoel Beer-Sheva football team, which he had been devoted to since his youth. He accompanied the team for many years and every year he would buy a subscription to the team’s home games. His mood at the start of a work week was influenced by the group’s accomplishments on the weekends. The ardent fans from the stands of Sermil Stadium and then Turner Stadium knew him well.
Gore said Colombo had never looked for office and administrative work and always saw himself as a field man. Over the years its advantages manifested in the fight against street criminals have been pushed into a corner. Gore says that "modern policing is much more based on technology, cameras, eavesdropping and other intelligence patents. Crime has also changed and today it is less street crime and an increase in fraud and computer offenses."
Colombo who according to Gore "was a brand and a valued detective" ended his service.
In civilian life he worked a bit as a private investigator and in recent years worked as a security guard at the Ayalon Mall in Ramat Gan.
His friends from the police service kept in touch with him over the years and they loved to reminisce about the past.
The same memories were also collected for a book that will soon be published.
In recent years he has been battling cancer.
In recent months his health has deteriorated and a week ago he passed away at the age of 76.
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