The GSS warned, the State Comptroller warned, but a senior civilian official was again abducted by the Palestinian Authority and taken with him sensitive information in his possession.
Nidal al-Atari, a Palestinian living near Nablus, is an employee of the Israeli Ministry of Defense whose job is to inspect all real estate transactions in Judea and Samaria on behalf of the Judea and Samaria Civil Administration.
Nidal al-Atari,
About two weeks ago, Al Atari asked Carmi to take 30 transaction files to his private home, on the grounds that it was not enough to complete the work in the office.
Carmi approved the request, but the next day al-Atari was taken to the Palestinian Authority's interrogation facilities in Jericho and has not returned to work since.
Along with him, the Palestinians seized the 30 files he had issued with the approval of the Civil Administration offices.
Because the administration works with outdated tools, including the lack of a computerized system, the files were not photographed or documented digitally or otherwise.
This means that the evidence for the transactions no longer exists in the Israeli government system, which could lead to losses of tens of millions of shekels for the parties to the agreements, exposing the Ministry of Defense to tort claims by the parties to the transactions.
In addition, the presence of the names of the land traders, some of whom cooperated with Israelis in the hands of the Palestinian Authority, could endanger their lives.
Palestinians have in the past tortured land traders who sold land to Jews, and in some cases even killed them.
Under Palestinian law, the sale of land to Jews is punishable by death.
To circumvent the law, Jews who purchase land set up companies headed by a Palestinian resident, and at the end of the process reward him with a handsome sum and even help him start a new life outside of Israel.
In addition, there are real estate transactions between the Palestinians regardless of the conflict. All this information is now in the hands of the Palestinian Authority.
The GSS and the state comptroller alerted, but the senior official first
Those who have warned in the past about the sensitive situation and its dangerous consequences are the General Security Service and the State Comptroller.
Even in the Civil Administration itself, according to the State Comptroller's report from August 2020, there were workers who warned of the default.
Although it was clear that he had provided information to the Palestinian Authority, the Civil Administration decided to promote him to an even more senior position and he returned to work as if things were not going well.
Following the first abduction, both the GSS and the State Comptroller warned that the position he felt he was holding and the information in his possession, made him a person at risk of extortion.
The comptroller wrote in his report for 2020, "In May 2017, the Palestinian Authority arrested and questioned the employee of the Land Registry Unit, who serves as the auditor of the Real Estate Registration Bureau in Ramallah. The detention and investigations continued intermittently for about a year. .
The comptroller noted that al-Atari's first abduction caused anxiety among other Palestinian workers in the Civil Administration, who feared that the PA would abduct and torture them as well.
According to the Comptroller, "Despite the request of the Land Registry Officer to the Civil Administration and his deputy, demanding a discussion of the strategy in the face of the crisis, no meeting was held on this issue. The audit revealed that although "He was exposed to information regarding the real estate transactions in Judea and Samaria, since no person in the Civil Administration or any other security entity examined the expected results and effects of his arrest and the possibility of information leaking to the Palestinian Authority."
Other officials in the administration also warned that Al Atari was sitting at a crossroads with sensitive and dangerous information. "In May 2019, the head of the GSS's infrastructure department wrote a document entitled 'Examining the connection between Palestinian administration employees and Palestinian intelligence agencies.' "In her application, she notes that information provided to her raises alleged suspicions against employees of the Land Registry who cooperate with Palestinian intelligence agencies," the comptroller writes. Preventing the Palestinians, given the great sensitivity regarding the issue of real estate in Judea and Samaria. There was concern that local workers were being exposed to the information and could pass it on to hostile parties. "The comptroller's investigation revealed that there were indeed cases in which sensitive business information was passed on by those Palestinians employed by Israel.
The General Security Service, in response to the State Comptroller's request, confirmed that "the employment of Palestinians by the Civil Administration creates a built-in situation in which information to which they are exposed may be transmitted in various ways to Palestinian Authority officials." "Emphasizing rules of conduct, restricting access to information and compartmentalization," the GSS said in a response. As happened four years ago, the senior Palestinian official, who is employed by Israel, was again abducted by the Palestinians and this time 30 transaction files were taken with him, the contents of which apparently went down the drain.
Gilad Ach, the director general of the organization "Up to Here" who revealed the involvement of the Palestinian Preventive Security in the Civil Administration, said in response that: "The abandonment of the Civil Administration has spiraled out of control.
The confiscation of sensitive documents by the administration by the Palestinian Preventive Security is a new low in the dysfunction of the Civil Administration.
The time has come for someone to rule on that. "
The Office of the Coordinator of Government Operations in Judea and Samaria stated: "Upon receiving the claim regarding the arrest of an employee of the Civil Administration, who is employed as an auditor of real estate transactions - in the Palestinian Authority, the Civil Administration began investigating the case.
"The issue is still being examined by the professionals in the Civil Administration in front of the relevant bodies in the Palestinian Authority."
"We emphasize that the employee trusts in real estate transactions between Palestinian residents, and has no involvement in transactions involving Israelis. Therefore, despite the arrest of the local employee by the Palestinian Authority - there is no fear of information leaking information regarding the sale of land to Israelis," said Mataf. That.
