About a month ago, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz received a letter that caused him to rub his eyes in disbelief. The letter included a list of names of 11 individuals who had been stripped of their Israeli citizenship with the approval of the members of an advisory board to the interior minister. The document bore the signature of the director of the ministry's Population Registry, Hertzel Gedj.

Poraz was taken aback by three elements: The line intended for the signature of the minister remained empty; the advisory board hadn't convened in months because Poraz wanted to replace its chairman, who the minister viewed as a rubber stamp for Gedj's decisions; and Poraz himself had proudly declared to Haaretz just a few days earlier that during his first year in office, not a single individual had been stripped of his or her citizenship.

Moreover, just a few months ago, Poraz issued a directive stating that any case involving the revocation of an individual's citizenship had to be presented to him for his personal consideration and decision - this, in the wake of charges that the revocation process that has been in practice for years is essentially flawed.

Gedj explained the case of the 11 by charging that they had obtained citizenship fraudulently.

"Perhaps he is right and they are all swindlers," says attorney Nicole Maor, the legal advisor to the Center for Jewish Pluralism, which represents hundreds of immigrant families in their dealings with the Interior Ministry. "But how can something like this be done contrary to the minister's views and without informing him, without a committee, by means of a flawed process?"

The 11 families have no legal recourse and cannot appeal the decision. They have 30 days to pack up their belongings and leave Israel, after living here, in some cases, for many years. If they don't leave on their own accord, they run the risk of being deported.

The affair of the 11, which finally tipped the balance toward Poraz's dramatic decision some 10 days ago, and after months of weighing the issue, to dismiss Gedj is typical of the latter's behavior and actions since taking up his post more than four years ago. Gedj, a former artillery corps brigadier general, took up his post at the Population Registry following a brief and not very glowing political career. In 1991, with the support of then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gedj vied for a place on the Likud Knesset list, but emerged from the primaries in an unrealistic position.

Nevertheless, his organizational skills and personal connections earned him one of the most influential and sensitive positions in the civil service. He is master over not only data banks that include information on each and every citizen and resident of the country, but he also makes decisions that shape the destiny of every individual wishing to enter Israel.

His critics - of which there are many - describe him as a man who is hungry for respect and power, a suspicious and arrogant man, who upholds a reign of terror over his subordinates, threatens those who oppose him (at least three complaints have been filed against him with the Civil Service Commission), and makes the lives of foreigners a misery with arbitrary decisions that leave no room for humanitarian considerations.

Human rights groups remember him in particular for a statement he made after an African worker who had been arrested committed suicide by hanging himself: Gedj proposed distributing ropes among the foreign workers and thus solve the problem of the illegal laborers.

His supporters describe him as a man who rewards personal loyalty with appointments to positions and support against any criticism, and as a man whose organizational skills have carried the Population Registry into the 21st century from the point of view of computerization. He is also credited with formulating clear-cut regulations and procedures that have made the jobs of his clerks easier.

Court files and newspaper cuttings are filled with incidents in which non-Jewish parents, children and spouses have run into Gedj's hard-line decisions. He ruled, for example, that any Israeli who invites his non-Jewish wife into the country has to deposit a guarantee of NIS 50,000. He also determined that a non-Jew who marries an Israeli abroad has to produce proof that he or she was single when marrying the Israeli.

"It is impossible to get such proof in many countries," Maor says. "Do you mean to say that the Ukrainian authorities encourage bigamy? That they didn't check that the woman who registered to marry with the Israeli wasn't married to someone else? That's unreasonable." Gedj, for his part, believes that many marriages between a non-Jew and an Israeli are fictitious, and therefore it is reasonable to demand they furnish proof and to make things difficult for them in other ways, too.

In whose interest?

Gedj does not give many interviews; he rarely responds to questions from journalists, and sometimes responds to them flippantly. But his public and private statements show a clear belief - in contrast to that of Poraz - in the need to refrain from granting legal status to non-Jews, and to stand firm in the face of politicians who exploit their positions to force the Interior Ministry to allow non-Jewish family members of immigrants and other foreigners, some of whom are involved in organized crime, to enter Israel.

Gedj certainly won't be winning any awards for being a nice guy, but in the absence of a clear and consistent government policy with regard to sensitive issues such as bringing the Falashmura to Israel, the status of the children of foreign workers and so forth, he views himself as master of a clear line that sticks as close as possible to the Law of Return.

Any compromise, as far as Gedj is concerned, means more danger that Israel will be swept with hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and non-Jews who will weigh heavy on the national coffers and change the demographic balance and the character of the state.

But presenting himself as the keeper of the gate in the face of political and economic interests does not always fit in with the manner in which he goes about his job. Last year, for example, he approved entry into Israel for 800 Turkish construction workers without permits from the Employment Service, and without informing any minister. He requested the permits from then- director of the Prime Minister's Office Avigdor Yitzhaki, in the framework of a deal in which Israel undertook to purchase from Turkey goods or services in return for a prestigious contract for Israel Military Industries to upgrade tanks.

Two years earlier, Gedj allowed entry into Israel to 60 Nepalese citizens who arrived in the guise of volunteers, but were agricultural workers for all intents and purposes, and were brought over to work in Gush Katif in place of Thai laborers who were afraid to do that work. Contrary to a decision by the Employment Service, Gedj also allowed entry to more than 50 Czech workers who were brought over to dismantle the MDF plant in Gush Segev that was purchased by an Austrian company.

He has displayed his disregard for the Employment Service and other elements linked to the field of foreign workers on numerous occasions by not turning up to meetings to which he was invited for the purpose of discussing problems and explaining his policies.

"Everyone would show up from all over the country, and only he stayed away. His contempt was plain to see," says a former official who worked with Gedj.

Similar charges have been heard from Foreign Ministry officials. Despite repeated requests, Gedj has refused for the past year to give permits to dozens of priests and nuns residing in Israel, citing alleged security reasons. But sources involved in the matter say that, on the one hand, Gedj is preventing the Shin Bet security service from carrying out security checks on the priests and nuns, while claiming, on the other hand, that his hands are tied because the Shin Bet hasn't carried out the checks.

The foot-dragging is prejudicing Israel's relations with the Vatican and has caused Poraz personal unpleasantness because he has met with various church representatives and promised to help them. In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth some two years ago, Gedj said that when he took up his post at the Population Registry, he was informed that former interior minister Haim Ramon had issued a directive to grant residency status to priests who had been in Israel for more than 10-15 years. "That decision puzzles me ... I announced that I am not implementing the order," he said.

Crisis of trust

Gedj approach toward some of Poraz's decision have also caused frustration among the minister's aides, leading Poraz to openly express a lack of faith in his high-ranking official. "Gedj has tried to undermine every move that Poraz has tried to push forward," says an Interior Ministry official.

Representatives of organizations who have asked Poraz to grant legal status to children of foreign workers who were born in Israel were told by the minister that he does not trust the figures given to him by Gedj with regard to the number of such children - around 10,000. This figure included all children born in Israel to a non-Jewish parent, including Palestinians from East Jerusalem and yeshiva students from the United States.

Poraz preferred the figures given to him in a report compiled by the Knesset's Research and Information Center, which based its data on information from the Tel Aviv Municipality and education and health organizations. This estimate spoke of some 2,000 children.

This is not the only example of Gedj using numbers, which his critics define as distorted, to serve his interests. Some two years ago, he announced that since the singing of the Oslo agreements, some 100,000 Palestinian who had married Israelis had been granted citizenship - a process he defined as "exercising the right of return through the back door."

He has often been heard complaining about High Court of Justice decisions that have required granting legal status to non-Jews. "The High Court of Justice isn't aware of the demographic problem that the country is facing, and the cost it carries," he has complained. "If you want a few effective laws, I can give them to you."

The truth is that only 16,000 Palestinians have received citizenship; the number of 100,000 presumably includes children who were born to the couples or children of Palestinians from previous marriages.

Over the past year, the Civil Service Commission has investigated a number of complaints against Gedj, including one that alleged that he had issued an order to hold in custody the Egyptian sailors from the Karine A, the boat that was caught trying to smuggle arms to the Palestinians, despite the fact that deportation were issued against them. Till now, none of the complaints have resulted in disciplinary measures.

In general, government officials tend to refrain from openly criticizing Gedj, due to the fact, among other reasons, that he conveys a clear message about the patronage he has from the Sharon family since successfully (and voluntarily) managing Sharon's election day headquarters during the prime ministerial vote.

An exception is Batya Karmon, who directs the Interior Ministry's department on foreigners and visas. Gedj took action to restrict her influence, and she finally lost her job. Karmon petitioned the National Labor Court and was reinstated.

In a complaint filed with the Jerusalem police some 18 months ago, Karmon claimed that Gedj threatened her, gave an order for her telephone and fax lines to be disconnected, read her mail and used confidential information against her that was taken from the Population Registry's computers, including information about her family.

Speaking on behalf of Gedj, the Interior Ministry's spokeswoman said: "The director of the Population Registry has no intention of responding in the media to a campaign of disparagement that is being conducted by elements with vested interests, and certainly not to recycled reports that have been checked in the past and found to be baseless. He intends to continue to work by virtue of his authority on all matters related to the Population Registry, without giving in to pressures from elements with vested interests."