The police prosecution unit submitted on Tuesday to the Petah Tikva Magistrate Court an indictment against a 21-year-old resident of Karnei Shomron and his 19-year-old partner, a resident of Ramle, a soldier in regular service, for smuggling illegal Palestinian immigrants into Israel.
According to the indictment, this occurred in the past few months and in some cases, while the accused wore an IDF uniform.
The indictment further stated that following the onset of Operation Iron Swords, a state of emergency was declared in Israel as part of which a blockade was imposed on the West Bank.
The accused, who, in parallel to serving in the military, worked as a waitress at a restaurant in Rishon Lezion, was in contact with an illegal Palestinian immigrant who worked at the restaurant,
She began driving him back and forth from his home in a village in the West Bank. After they had become friends, the Palestinian offered the female soldier to smuggle illegal immigrants into Israel in exchange for monetary payment. On thirty different occasions, the accused, along with her partner, drove illegal Palestinian immigrants from the Beit Horon gas station on Route 443 through the Maccabim crossing into central Israel.
Upon her arrival at the checkpoint, her partner would place his hand on the driver’s seat and hide the passengers in the back seat. On one of the trips to smuggle illegal immigrants, she did so while wearing an IDF uniform.
The person who mediated between the accused and the Palestinians and organized the smuggling was the Palestinian worker, an illegal resident himself, who transferred to the two a payment ranging between NIS 200-300 for each illegal immigrant.
The correspondence between the soldier and the Palestinian partner revealed their close relationship. Using the nickname “Mamula” for her partner, the soldier spoke of the timing of their operations and when she would have to return to base.
In one of the correspondences, the accused sent photos of a location, a photo of a yellow security gate, and a photo of a sign that read: “This road leads to a Palestinian village; the entrance for Israeli citizens is dangerous,” to which she added a joking comment.
Smuggling a released Schalit deal prisoner
The details of the investigation reveal that one of the Palestinians who contacted and corresponded with to use their “services” is a security prisoner who was released from prison in the Schalit deal, along with many Palestinians whose identities are unknown.
The police asked for the extension of the couple’s detention until the end of the proceedings.
“The accused, who is a soldier in the IDF, ‘took a risk’ on the security of the state during a war, and at a time when the security decisions required the state to stop bringing in foreign residents from the West Bank who are employed in Israel,” the police stated.
The police added that the accused “organized transportation into the territory of the country, during the war, and they transported for greed and money many dozens of people whose character is unknown.”
The police also stated that “It appears that the defendants have no fear of law enforcement,” noting “that there is no suitable alternative that would neutralize the danger posed by the accused from returning and doing what is attributed to them in the indictment, and that the interest of protecting the public outweighs the interest of the freedom of the two.”
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