Untold story of Shulamit Cohen, Mossad spy who operated in the heart of Lebanon

Shulamit Cohen Kishik, a Mossad spy known as “our woman in Beirut,” risked her life gathering intelligence for Israel from inside Lebanon. Unlike Eli Cohen – the legendary Israeli agent executed in Syria – her story is one of survival rather than martyrdom.

Known by the codename “The Pearl,” she was born in Argentina in 1917 and immigrated with her family to Jerusalem during the British Mandate period. At 16, she married the affluent Lebanese Jewish merchant Joseph Kishik amid her family’s financial difficulties and moved with him to Beirut, where her life and clandestine work for Mossad would eventually unfold.

Known in Lebanon as “Madame Cohen,” she used her charm and linguistic skills to build connections with members of the Lebanese elite, including presidents, ministers, and senior military officers. She developed close ties with prominent figures such as President Camille Chamoun, Prime Minister Riad al-Solh, and even Arab Gulf princes. Through her position in high society, she was able to attend private gatherings where sensitive political and military discussions took place.

On one occasion, she reportedly overheard senior Lebanese officers discussing invasion plans of the Land of Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. She passed the information to Jewish forces by writing a message in invisible ink, which was smuggled to the Haganah headquarters in Metula, just across the border. This act marked a turning point in her role, establishing her as a valuable intelligence source for Israeli networks.

Over the course of 14 years, she maintained a double life in Lebanon, using her social standing as cover while transmitting information to Jewish organizations in the region. Her husband, Joseph Kishik, eventually discovered her activities but chose to support them, even assisting financially in operations that included smuggling Jewish children across the border into Israel.

However, in 1961, Cohen was eventually arrested and imprisoned in a women’s jail in the Lebanese capital. She endured physical and psychological torture in jail, including electric shocks that made her blind in one eye. 

Following the capture of Eli Cohen in Syria, the Lebanese guards taunted her: “He is Cohen and you are Cohen. He was hanged, now it’s your turn.” However, she refused to break and did not betray her Mossad contacts. Shulamit reportedly found strength in reciting Psalms. 

She was initially sentenced to death by hanging, but the sentence was later commuted to 20 years of hard labor and ultimately reduced to seven. In 1967, following the Six-Day War, she was released as part of a covert prisoner exchange between Israel and Lebanon and returned to Israel, where she was reunited with her family.

She was later awarded the President’s Award of Israel and the Simon Wiesenthal Center Medal of Freedom in recognition of her contribution to Israel and the Jewish people.

In 2017, Shulamit Cohen, known as the “Grandmother James Bond,” died at the age of 100. Her son, Yitzhak Levanon, later served as Israel’s ambassador to Egypt.

Lebanon and Israel still do not have any official diplomatic relations. However, Lebanon is reportedly interested in holding direct talks with Israel in order to end the war with the Iranian-backed terrorist militia Hezbollah.