| Jerusalem ID-Mafia Exposed In a weekly series, Israeli journalists of the daily Yediot Aharonot have been presenting the findings of their investigation into the dark side of the Israeli interior ministry in East Jerusalem. Their detailed and well-founded reports leave no doubt among all those in Israel who always prefer to disregard information issued by the local human rights organizations: Yosef Tov, respected director of the Population Registry, signed blank Jerusalem ID cards for his two close friends and servants, one of them his Palestinian car mechanic, the other his Israeli laundry aide. Both of them made a living from the sale of these ID cards to Palestinians. Following the revealing press reports, the Knesset Committee for Internal Affairs questioned Tov and other Ministry personnel. The new Israeli Interior Minister, Haim Ramon, temporarily suspended Tov and closed the troublesome interior office in East Jerusalem for the second time this year. (The former interior minister David Liba’i had already done so in summer 1995).
However, the mafia’s arms are much longer. The Yediot Aharonot investigation also revealed that a Palestinian millionaire from Hebron, Haddad Muslemani, had supported Ehud Olmert’s election campaign against former Mayor Teddy Kollek. Once elected mayor, Olmert provided the millionaire with a considerable reduction of municipal taxes and - with the help of Yosef Tov - with a Jerusalem ID card [Yediot Aharonot, 1/12/1995]
This scandal, however shameful for the Israeli authorities, may yet find a conclusion which again will serve Israeli interests in Jerusalem. According to unconfirmed information published by the Israeli press, Interior Minister Haim Ramon is planning to issue new ID cards in Jerusalem. The explicit aim: to cancel ID cards issued illegally. The hidden agenda: to use the opportunity in order to revoke the Jerusalem residency status of all those Palestinian Jerusalemites who are living outside the city boundaries? |
