27 nov 2018
The head of the airline's Development and Resources Department, Rami Yogev, is suspected of helping a large-scale drug trafficking network bring nearly 15 kilograms of cocaine into Israel from South Africa; former Shin Bet agent also among suspects in the case.
Police arrested a senior El Al on Monday who is suspected of being involved in a large-scale drug trafficking operation.
The airline official, Rami Yogev, 53, is the manager of the Development and Resources Department at El Al and has been working for the company for 25 years.
As part of his job, Yogev serves as the liaison between El Al and the Shin Bet, which determines the security arrangements for EL AL flights and their representatives abroad.
As such, Yogev is granted a top security clearance—one of the highest in Israel—and is authorized to enter restricted areas housing the planes, and load and unload special supplies, including weapons.
According to the the Israel Police's Unit of International Crime Investigations, as a member of a drug trafficking network, the suspect allegedly used his security clearance and free access to company's planes to smuggle large amounts of cocaine to Israel.
Three other men suspected of involvement in the drug trafficking network were arrested. One of the suspects was identified as ex-Shin Bet official Beno Shalom, who served for 12 years as an agent in the Shin Bet's Jewish Division and was even involved in a secret operation in which he infiltrated an extreme right group.
Testimonies gathered by the police suggest that the network had a drug smuggling "route" between Johannesburg, South Africa, to Israel, and managed to smuggle in nearly 15 kilograms of cocaine.
Yogev was suspected of assisting the network in airport security checks.
The Rishon LeZion Magistrate's Court extended the remand of Yogev, Shalom and another suspect, Roy Chen, until Tuesday of next week.
"We believe that the suspect (Yogev) played a larger role in the operation than the other suspects so far," a police representative said at the court hearing.
Yogev's attorney said that his client "denies these allegations. Due to his classified nature of his job, I cannot elaborate further. We are confident that the police will release him soon." The other suspects also denied their involvement.
El Al said it "views these allegations gravely and awaits the result of the police investigation."
Police arrested a senior El Al on Monday who is suspected of being involved in a large-scale drug trafficking operation.
The airline official, Rami Yogev, 53, is the manager of the Development and Resources Department at El Al and has been working for the company for 25 years.
As part of his job, Yogev serves as the liaison between El Al and the Shin Bet, which determines the security arrangements for EL AL flights and their representatives abroad.
As such, Yogev is granted a top security clearance—one of the highest in Israel—and is authorized to enter restricted areas housing the planes, and load and unload special supplies, including weapons.
According to the the Israel Police's Unit of International Crime Investigations, as a member of a drug trafficking network, the suspect allegedly used his security clearance and free access to company's planes to smuggle large amounts of cocaine to Israel.
Three other men suspected of involvement in the drug trafficking network were arrested. One of the suspects was identified as ex-Shin Bet official Beno Shalom, who served for 12 years as an agent in the Shin Bet's Jewish Division and was even involved in a secret operation in which he infiltrated an extreme right group.
Testimonies gathered by the police suggest that the network had a drug smuggling "route" between Johannesburg, South Africa, to Israel, and managed to smuggle in nearly 15 kilograms of cocaine.
Yogev was suspected of assisting the network in airport security checks.
The Rishon LeZion Magistrate's Court extended the remand of Yogev, Shalom and another suspect, Roy Chen, until Tuesday of next week.
"We believe that the suspect (Yogev) played a larger role in the operation than the other suspects so far," a police representative said at the court hearing.
Yogev's attorney said that his client "denies these allegations. Due to his classified nature of his job, I cannot elaborate further. We are confident that the police will release him soon." The other suspects also denied their involvement.
El Al said it "views these allegations gravely and awaits the result of the police investigation."
10 oct 2018
Israeli minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan, on Tuesday, said he would reconsider his official stance on denying entry to an American student over alleged links to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement if she publicly condemned a boycott of Israel.
Last week, Lara Alqasem was barred from entering the country despite obtaining a student visa from the Israeli constulate in Miami, because Israeli authorities claim she supported and took part in campaigns boycotting Israel. Since then, according to the PNN, she has been detained at Ben-Gurion Airport, pending a final ruling on her case. Her first appeal was denied. The second appeal is expected to be heard in the coming days.
In her testimony to the appeals court last week, Alqasem said, “I don’t support BDS. If I supported it, I wouldn’t be able to come to Israel as a student.”
According to Haaretz, the ministry’s profile of Alqasem was composed of several Facebook posts and a profile compiled by the controversial right-wing website Canary Mission.Erdan questioned Alqasem’s credibility, saying she erased her social network accounts before coming to Israel. He also criticized the “far-left, Meretz members,” as well as the Hebrew University, for cooperating with “the campaign of lies of the boycott activist.”
Speaking on Israeli army radio, Erdan said that if “Alqasem comes forward tomorrow morning with her own voice, not with all sorts of lawyers’ wisecracking and statements that could be construed this way or another – and declares that supporting BDS, she thinks today is illegitimate and she regrets what she did on this matter, we will consider our stance.”
Erdan insisted that Alqasem is not incarcerated, and may travel back to the U.S. whenever she wishes. He said any other portrayal of the situation was a “huge lie.”
On Monday, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s senate called on Erdan and Interior Minister Arye Dery to allow Alqasem into Israel.
In an unusual step, the university also asked to join Alqasem’s appeal to the district court against the decision to deport her.
“Beyond that it [the Hebrew University] gave a scholarship to someone whose activity in the U.S. is to violently silence voices in U.S. campuses … the Hebrew University assists her, giving her a tuition scholarship at the expense of other students and appeals to the court,” he said.
Last week, Lara Alqasem was barred from entering the country despite obtaining a student visa from the Israeli constulate in Miami, because Israeli authorities claim she supported and took part in campaigns boycotting Israel. Since then, according to the PNN, she has been detained at Ben-Gurion Airport, pending a final ruling on her case. Her first appeal was denied. The second appeal is expected to be heard in the coming days.
In her testimony to the appeals court last week, Alqasem said, “I don’t support BDS. If I supported it, I wouldn’t be able to come to Israel as a student.”
According to Haaretz, the ministry’s profile of Alqasem was composed of several Facebook posts and a profile compiled by the controversial right-wing website Canary Mission.Erdan questioned Alqasem’s credibility, saying she erased her social network accounts before coming to Israel. He also criticized the “far-left, Meretz members,” as well as the Hebrew University, for cooperating with “the campaign of lies of the boycott activist.”
Speaking on Israeli army radio, Erdan said that if “Alqasem comes forward tomorrow morning with her own voice, not with all sorts of lawyers’ wisecracking and statements that could be construed this way or another – and declares that supporting BDS, she thinks today is illegitimate and she regrets what she did on this matter, we will consider our stance.”
Erdan insisted that Alqasem is not incarcerated, and may travel back to the U.S. whenever she wishes. He said any other portrayal of the situation was a “huge lie.”
On Monday, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s senate called on Erdan and Interior Minister Arye Dery to allow Alqasem into Israel.
In an unusual step, the university also asked to join Alqasem’s appeal to the district court against the decision to deport her.
“Beyond that it [the Hebrew University] gave a scholarship to someone whose activity in the U.S. is to violently silence voices in U.S. campuses … the Hebrew University assists her, giving her a tuition scholarship at the expense of other students and appeals to the court,” he said.
7 oct 2018
Israel has denied entry to a University of Florida graduate, claiming the female student is involved with a group that urged a boycott against the country for its policies toward Palestinians, according to Israeli news reports.
Haaretz and The Times of Israel said that 22-year-old Lara al-Qasem, a US citizen with Palestinian grandparents, was prevented from entering Israel after she arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday.
Al-Qasem had been granted a student visa from the consulate general of Israel in Miami to study in a master’s program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haaretz reported. The visa was valid for a year.
The consulate general confirmed on Thursday that the visa was issued in Miami.
Lior Haiat, the consul general of Israel in Miami, told the Miami Herald in a statement: “Every country has the sovereign right to decide who is admitted to enter its borders. Once we realized that Ms. Al-Qasem is involved in anti-Israel activities through the BDS movement, she was denied entry. She appealed to the Israeli courts and the case is still being reviewed.
We find it ironic that someone who calls on the indiscriminate boycott of Israel, as a tool to harm and destroy the state of Israel, wishes to study in the very country which they call to boycott.”
Reports from Israel say al-Qasem was detained and held at the airport by the immigration and border authority, which manages security at Israeli borders, and later ordered to leave the country.
According to these reports, the student had served as president of Students for Justice in Palestine when she was a student at the University of Florida in 2016-17.
Haaretz and The Times of Israel said that 22-year-old Lara al-Qasem, a US citizen with Palestinian grandparents, was prevented from entering Israel after she arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday.
Al-Qasem had been granted a student visa from the consulate general of Israel in Miami to study in a master’s program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haaretz reported. The visa was valid for a year.
The consulate general confirmed on Thursday that the visa was issued in Miami.
Lior Haiat, the consul general of Israel in Miami, told the Miami Herald in a statement: “Every country has the sovereign right to decide who is admitted to enter its borders. Once we realized that Ms. Al-Qasem is involved in anti-Israel activities through the BDS movement, she was denied entry. She appealed to the Israeli courts and the case is still being reviewed.
We find it ironic that someone who calls on the indiscriminate boycott of Israel, as a tool to harm and destroy the state of Israel, wishes to study in the very country which they call to boycott.”
Reports from Israel say al-Qasem was detained and held at the airport by the immigration and border authority, which manages security at Israeli borders, and later ordered to leave the country.
According to these reports, the student had served as president of Students for Justice in Palestine when she was a student at the University of Florida in 2016-17.
14 sept 2018
An American Jewish woman was temporarily detained at Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport, on Wednesday, and initially denied entry, as she had visited Palestinians facing home demolitions in West Bank.
Julie Shayna Weinberg-Connors, aged 23, who arrived on a flight from the United States in order to start studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, in Jerusalem, was finally “informed that she could enter Israel on condition that she did not go into the West Bank without a permit,” according to Days of Palestine.
On arrival at the airport, Weinberg-Connors had already obtained a temporary resident’s visa and a potential immigrant’s visa.
According to the activist, she was told by the investigator at the airport that she “can’t go” to the West Bank; when she responded that, with the visa she had, visiting the West Bank was not illegal, the investigator replied, “No, it’s not [illegal] but we told you that you cannot go there.”
In addition, when she acknowledged having visited Khan Al-Ahmar, a Palestinian community slated for demolition in the West Bank, the investigator got up and said, “You cannot enter. You are here to make trouble.”
Only some two hours later, after the direct intervention of her lawyer, MKs Tamar Zandberg and Mossi Raz of Meretz, and Haaretz newspaper, Weinberg-Connors was told she would be allowed entry – but only after signing a form entitled “Declaration by a tourist of non-entry to [Palestinian] Authority areas without the approval of the Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories”.
Julie Shayna Weinberg-Connors, aged 23, who arrived on a flight from the United States in order to start studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, in Jerusalem, was finally “informed that she could enter Israel on condition that she did not go into the West Bank without a permit,” according to Days of Palestine.
On arrival at the airport, Weinberg-Connors had already obtained a temporary resident’s visa and a potential immigrant’s visa.
According to the activist, she was told by the investigator at the airport that she “can’t go” to the West Bank; when she responded that, with the visa she had, visiting the West Bank was not illegal, the investigator replied, “No, it’s not [illegal] but we told you that you cannot go there.”
In addition, when she acknowledged having visited Khan Al-Ahmar, a Palestinian community slated for demolition in the West Bank, the investigator got up and said, “You cannot enter. You are here to make trouble.”
Only some two hours later, after the direct intervention of her lawyer, MKs Tamar Zandberg and Mossi Raz of Meretz, and Haaretz newspaper, Weinberg-Connors was told she would be allowed entry – but only after signing a form entitled “Declaration by a tourist of non-entry to [Palestinian] Authority areas without the approval of the Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories”.
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