[CNI News has previously reported on the strange case of Yuri Isaacov, an elderly Israeli man who was reportedly abducted last September. His case gained international attention in large part because he showed up at a local police station covered with strange green powder that, he said, had been "spit" on him by an alien. Lab testing of the powder could not determine its origin. Meanwhile, Isaacov's health began to deteriorate, prompting one UFO researcher to offer him clinical treatment in the United States.
There the story stood as of our last report (see CNI News vol. 2 no. 23 of Feb 16, 1997). From the beginning, Israeli journalist and ufologist Barry Chamish has provided us with details of this unusual case. Now, however, he casts serious doubt on the entire affair. CNI News thanks Barry Chamish for permission to publish this story. Chamish may be emailed at: chamish@netmedia.net.il]
by Barry Chamish
April 15, 1997
It looks as though Israeli ufology is about to suffer another blow. Its most famous UFO abductee, Yuri Isaacov, is looking more and more like a fraud.
In September of 1996, Isaacov claimed he was taken aboard a huge craft while walking near his home in Nazareth. Inside the craft he was surrounded by small grey-like entities, but there were differences in his description of them [compared to reports] in worldwide literature. Instead of arms, his had three snakey tentacles from their shoulders down to their knees, with three-inch fingernail-like appendages at the tips. The tallest creature was a woman with a glowing bikini-top and crescent-shaped tiara. Another tall male spoke to one of the small entities in a voice sounding like "a needle scratching a record." It responded by approaching Isaacov and "spitting" a green powder on his face and upper body. That is all Isaacov claimed to remember. He awoke in a soccer field and walked to the nearest police station to tell his tale.
The police took him to Afula Hospital where he was examined by Dr. Darawashe, who removed traces of the powder. The powder was tested by the hospital laboratory and found to be composed of 55% aluminium and a hodgepodge of other elements including calcium, nitrate, and iron. The hospital spokesman admitted the powder was of unknown origin and certainly not found naturally in Israel. That became the central argument in favour of Isaacov's veracity.
Yuri's story made national headlines and he appeared on the national television news programs. He immediately became Israel's best known abductee and the ufologists descended upon him. They managed to have his case publicized internationally.
Last December I visited the [town of] Achihod to report on a "dead alien" that turned out to be a lizard. [See CNI News vol. 2 no. 20 of Jan 1, 1997.] Also there were the usual gang of UFO hangers-on. Two ladies of this group told me that Yuri Isaacov was suffering agonizing pain because of the lingering powder burns and tried to persuade me to pay for an exclusive interview.
I turned them down, but events were to propel me to Isaacov anyway. Not a week after the alien lizard fiasco, a Netanya couple claimed to have experienced a unique abduction/house haunting experience. After meeting with them and examining some intriguing physical evidence, I chose to believe them. I called [German ufologist] Michael Hesemann of Magazin 2000 and the next day sent him some samples of evidence. Within ten days, he arranged the arrival of American abduction expert Derrel Sims in Israel.
Michael made an additional request. After completing the Netanya research, could I have Derrel examine Yuri Isaacov? If he was genuinely ill, Michael would pay his airfare to Houston, where Derrel would arrange the best dermatological care available free of charge.
When we met Isaacov, he did seem ill. His hands shook and he had a nasty rash on his left arm. Further, one testicle was inflamed. He explained that he hadn't showered for five months because water agonized his skin. Derrel was convinced and offered to fly Yuri to Houston immediately. All he needed was a copy of Yuri's medical records and a small sample of the powder that poisoned him. [Yuri] directed us to Afula Hospital where the records and powder were kept.
We were told by the deputy director of the hospital, Dr. Michael Kedem, that Yuri had signed a power of attorney agreement with a lawyer named Michael Luxemburg. Without his offering a release, he could not hand over the records. Derrel told Yuri that no hospital would ever admit him without his previous medical records and Yuri promised to instruct Luxemburg to sign them over to me.
Now the roller coaster ride. It seems Yuri met Luxemburg in the out-patients clinic of Afula Hospital the very evening of his encounter and without hesitation signed a contract granting him total power of attorney over his affairs. It did not occur to him to wonder if Luxemburg was the type of ambulance chasing lawyer who hangs around hospital waiting rooms. Luxemburg promised me to arrange the release if Derrel sent him a memo stating that his client would not be abandoned penniless in America. Derrel complied. I called Luxemburg twice leaving messages on his machine and he never got back to me.
Meanwhile Isaacov called to say Luxemburg would not grant the release unless he was paid $5000 for his "work." I told him to report Luxemburg to the Bar Association for unethical behaviour. He claimed he already had but the Bar supported Luxemburg. Two nights later Isaacov's daughter called me from Toronto to say how worried she was about her father's health and how much it meant if I could help. She received my phone number from her father.
Next scene: Isaacov calls to tell me he has a copy of the lab analysis of the powder. I told him to send it to me registered mail. He told me he couldn't afford the stamp. I said I'd pay him back. He replied that he didn't have the money to lend me.
By coincidence again, Michael Hesemann was to arrive in late February and I would be his guide to numerous Israeli UFO-related incidents and wonders for an upcoming film. The very last item on our hectic agenda was Isaacov. He claimed two aliens were not only in his apartment the week before but also in the apartment of an elderly woman nearby. We asked to meet the lady but Isaacov claimed it was too late in the evening. So Michael filmed his account, not including the lawyer's refusal to release the material unless he came up with $5000. Michael wasn't biting. Instead he agreed to stay overnight in Nazareth and act as a witness in a police complaint against Luxemburg for extortion. The next morning Isaacov refused to go to the police, telling Hesemann that his lawyer was really "a good man." And the neighbour was nowhere to be found.
I was hoping this would be the end of Michael's interest in a person I was totally convinced was a pathetic con artist. But Michael is, and I'm not exaggerating, the most determined and stubborn person I've ever worked with. He asked me to contact the Maariv UFO reporter David Ronen to scare Luxemburg into giving me the release. The threat of being exposed publicly as an extortionist responsible for the suffering of poor Yuri was bound to work.
Ronen called me two weeks later asking, "Is Isaacov a liar?"
"Why would you think so?"
"Because Luxemburg claims he never asked for $5000 and will gladly hand over the release."
"So why won't he answer my phone calls?" I inquired.
"I don't know. Maybe they're both in this together for the $5000."
Not two days later, leading Israeli ufologist Doron Rotem called me. "Did you know Yuri Isaacov phoned me last night and accused me of spreading wild rumours about him?"
I asked Doron why he would go to the trouble. Doron replied, "Because I went looking for the neighbour who was also supposedly visited and I met some of his other neighbours. One after another said he was a pathological liar. I'll give you one example. They said he showed them an obviously new tattoo and claimed he got it in a Nazi concentration camp."
"So, do you still believe his abduction story?" I asked Doron.
"I don't know anymore, but there was nothing rare in the green powder. Anyone could have made it."
Which brings us up to date. Isaacov called me and said he was visited by two aliens and they blew more powder at him. He had collected six or seven grams of the extraterrestrial material. "We finally have the powder and I'm saving it only for you," he announced. He added that since the encounter, he was bleeding from his gonads. I told him I'd contact Michael and Derrel and see what they suggest. I e-mailed Michael that I sure won't be the one to waste a trip to Nazareth unless I was paid the equivalent of wartime compensation. I had already seen enough of this character.
Needless to say, Michael immediately e-mailed instructions to get the powder and Fedex it to him. I phoned Isaacov and relayed the message. He said, "I'm not going to just give you the powder. It's worth a fortune."
I briefly considered telling him of the genuine humanitarian treatment Derrel and Michael had offered him, including thousands of dollars in airfare and hospital treatment fees. But I just said, "Goodbye, Yuri. Find another sucker."
Original file name: CNI - Chamish.Isaacov
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