Yaakov Havakook

Yaakov Havakook (also Ya'acov; ) is a former Israeli security officer and anthropologist.

Biography He gained his bachelor's degree in oriental studies from Tel-Aviv University, his Master's in anthropology from both Tel-Aviv and Be'er-Sheva Universities, an additional Master's in political science from Haifa University and graduated from .

Havakook started working for the Israeli Ministry of Defence in 1981, while researching undertaking fieldwork documenting the cave dwellers of Southern Mount Hebron. During his work, he lived with the locals in the caves, khirbas and villages, wore their clothes, ate their food, spoke their language and carried an Arabic nickname. The resulting book, Life in the Caves of Mount Hebron, was published by the Israeli Ministry of Defense in 1985, and is used by both the Israeli army and the Palestinian inhabitants of the caves to bolster their arguments in the ongoing dispute over who has a right to them. His study of the living circumstances among the Negev Bedouin were published in 1985/1986.

Havakkok continued his security career in undisclosed positions. From 1994 to 2011 he served as Head of the Editing Department in the Ministry's publishing house, until the division was closed. In 2011, Havakook stole printers, monitors, keyboards, a PC computer and office supplies from the offices to his home. From 2011 to 2017 he was Head of the International Communications Unit in the Spokesperson's Directorate of the Ministry of Defence.

In 2018, Havakook was caught and indicted for theft by an employee, and in 2020 convicted under a plea agreement. He received a five-month conditional prison sentence and a fine of ₪10,000. In 2021, the Civil Service Disciplinary Tribunal additionally imposed a severe reprimand, his immediate dismissal from the Ministry of Defence, disqualification from further employment in the ministry.

Awards Havakook won the Itzhak Sade award for military literature in 1999.

Books Life in the caves of Mount Hebron (1985) (חיים במערות הר חברון) Islamic Terrorism: Profile of the Hamas Movement, with Shakib Saleh (Tel Aviv, 1999)