Israeli soldiers among 14 indicted for selling entry permits to Palestinian workers

TEL AVIV:: The Israel Police arrested 14 suspects on charges of trafficking in entry permits to Israel for Palestinians for a fee. The 14 were indicted on the charges after an investigation was conducted by the police together with the military and Israel’s tax authority.

The indictments came, said the police, after a yearlong investigation against a number of suspects, including a number of officers and soldiers in active and retired service, on suspicion of issuing entry permits to Israel to Palestinians on a large scale for payment of thousands of shekels.

The police investigation revealed that the main suspect in the affair, a 53-year-old resident of Sakhnin, traded entry permits to Palestinians for money through his son, who is a soldier in career service serving at the Sha’ar Ephraim border crossing, which is located east of Netanya near Tulkarm. The entry permits were granted under the pretext of entering Israel for agricultural work.

The investigation, reported the police, also revealed that the suspect operated a network of Palestinian and Israeli intermediaries whose job it was to locate Palestinians interested in entry permits to Israel and collect the payment for them.