The Shin Bet security service has detained a Jewish, 25-year-
old resident of Ramat Gan, on suspicion that he helped
Palestinian terrorists carry out a suicide bombing that
killed five Israelis last month in Netanya, by driving the
bomber and his handler past a checkpoint into Israel. The
bomber murdered five when he blew himself up near the Netanya
shopping center for which the Islamic Jihad took
responsibility. Two Israeli Arabs, from Taibeh and Baka al-
Garbiyeh, were also detained.
The three were indicted Tuesday for manslaughter. They all
said that they did not know that their passenger was a
bomber, and thought that he was a burglar. A fourth suspect,
a Palestinian man from the West Bank village of Ilar near
Tulkarm, was also arrested as the handler in the bombing.
The Shin Bet said that the man from Ramat Gan has admitted
that he transported illegal Palestinian workers and car
thieves into Israel on a regular basis. He also admitted that
he drove the bomber and the second Islamic Jihad man into
Israel on the day of the bombing, but insisted that he was
not aware he was transporting a suicide bomber. He thought
that the man and his handler were thieves.
Shin Bet investigators said he should have suspected that his
passenger was a suicide bomber, in part because he was
carrying the explosives in a large bag. Sif Azzam, the Arab
from Taibeh who worked with the Jew from Ramat Gan, said that
he did examine the contents of the bomber's bag and saw a
smaller bag in which the actual explosives were hidden.
However he did not look into the smaller bag and believed the
passengers when they told him that the bag contained burglary
tools.
From the Torah perspective, it is likely that one who admits
to knowingly transmitting a criminal is liable in a moral
sense for whatever the criminal does and cannot claim that he
"only" intended one kind of crime. On the other hand, from a
monetary perspective it would make a difference which damages
he were watching out for. In this case the moral issue is
dominant.
Zaharan, the handler from the West Bank, told investigators
that a month before the bombing he had agreed to an offer
made by Islamic Jihad terrorist Nidal Abu Saadeh, to help a
suicide bomber infiltrate into Israel for $10,000. Abu Saadeh
gave Zaharan a fake identification card, as well as a black
briefcase that held another smaller briefcase that contained
explosives.
On the day of the bombing, Zaharan left with Abu Saadeh from
Tulkarm to Nablus and picked up Jaway, the bomber, on the
way. Abu Saadeh gave Zaharan NIS 1,700 and told him to take a
taxi to a nearby checkpoint where a driver with yellow
Israeli license plates would be waiting for him and would
then drive him to Taibeh for NIS 1,000. He was to take Jaway
to Netanya.
Sif Azzam picked them up at the checkpoint. Azzam, an Israeli
Arab resident of the village of Taibeh, said that he and the
Jew had been driving illegal laborers into Israel through the
checkpoint near Tulkarm for about seven months.
Azzam would drive to the Jabara checkpoint on the Palestinian
side, where he would pick up workers and transport them to
Pondok village. The Jew would wait for him with a GMC
commercial vehicle, and take the laborers to the Palestinian
town of Qalqilya or Zofin. Azzam would drive ahead.
Both Azzam and the Jewish driver were paid NIS 1,000 for each
trip.
On the day of the bombing, Azzam was asked to smuggle in,
"two friends, thieves." Around 2:00 p.m., they picked them
up. Azzam said he noticed that the bomber was carrying a
large briefcase and that usually whenever people with bags
entered his car, he would check their contents to make sure
they weren't carrying explosives.
In this case, he said, he also checked the contents of the
bag and found clothes and another briefcase. The bomber told
him that the smaller briefcase contained equipment for
breaking-and-entering.
Azzam then drove the bomber and his handler to the Jew's
vehicle, where they boarded, lay down on the floor of the car
and drove to the Zofin checkpoint, where they passed through
easily. The Jew was not stopped. Azzam drove ahead of them
and was stopped by troops at the roadblock, who asked to see
his identification.
The two vehicles then drove towards the Israeli town of
Kochav Yair, where the bomber and his handler boarded Azzam's
car and continued to Taibeh.
The Jew said that it was at this stage that he noticed the
large briefcase that the bomber held. He said he asked Azzam
about it, and Azzam told him that it held clothes. He said he
was satisfied with his answer.
After the bomber and the handler reached Taibeh, the handler
called a resident of the Israeli town of Baka al-Garbiyeh,
Abu Muh, to come. When he arrived, at around 5:00 p.m., the
bomber's handler told him that the man was a resident of the
Israeli city of Lod and that he needed to reach Netanya in
the morning to visit relatives, and that he would later need
a ride back to the Jabara checkpoint.
Abu Muh agreed to take them after he was shown the handler's
fake ID card. Abu Muh told the Shin Bet that he got worried
when he saw that the bomber put his briefcase in the trunk of
his car. The handler said that it just held clothes.
Abu Muh said that during the ride from Taibeh to Netanya he
became suspicious, but he still continued. When he reached
Netanya, the handler asked him to drop off the bomber in an
area free of people, so that he could take out his briefcase
without being noticed.
The bomber got out near a shopping mall, took the small
briefcase out of the large one and left the large one inside
the trunk.
Abu Muh said the he drove only a few meters when he heard a
blast. At that point he knew that he had driven a suicide
bomber, but he kept on driving, taking the handler to his
home town of Baka al-Garbiyeh, where he disposed of the large
briefcase the bomber had left in the car. He then served the
handler coffee in his house.
Security officials say the three suspects took advantage of
the fact that Jews are not checked at checkpoints, to bring
in a terrorist and his handler. It was the Jew's involvement
that was critical in allowing the bomber to reach the heart
of Netanya.
In December 2003, an Israeli taxi was charged with having
driven a bomber and his fixer to a junction in Tel Aviv,
where the terrorist later blew himself up, killing four
people.
