For years, HaKol HaYehudi has warned about the presence of Arab workers in IDF bases, some of whom enter them illegally. Various surprising cases we have uncovered over time are part of a broader issue stemming from the dominance of Arab labor in the construction sector and even in public transportation and vehicle repair.
What the average Israeli perceives as cheap labor that helps cut costs has turned out to be a significant security risk and a problem that has spiraled out of control. The financial toll is staggering. Who can truly quantify the cost of the national security damages caused by our almost exclusive reliance on a workforce that ranges from workers who can not be trusted to actual enemies and supporters of terrorism?
One case–whose investigation was made public this week–has led to about ten arrests so far, and reveals the tip of the iceberg of a huge security debacle.
According to statements from the police and the Ministry of Defense, the suspects in the case have been arrested for facilitating the entry of illegal workers and workers who never received the security clearance necessary to enter IDF bases.
The initial covert investigation was carried out by detectives from the “Arazim" unit in the Ministry of Defense Security Authority (MALMAB), as well as the National Financial Investigations Unit in Lahav 433.
The central figure under investigation is Mohammad Yazbakha, the owner of the company "Meflase M.H.R. Ltd." based in Nazareth, which executes major earthworks and engineering projects for the Ministry of Defense and the IDF, including dozens of military bases and training areas, even during times of war.
Along with Yazbakha , two of his close associates at the company were arrested, as well as a Jewish man from Ashkelon, a former career soldier in the IDF engineering corps, who is suspected of having accepted bribes in exchange for allowing illegal workers into IDF bases. Five Arab residents from Yatta in the southern Hebron Hills were also arrested.
During the course of the initial covert investigation, suspicions arose that several contractors awarded Ministry of Defense tenders for infrastructure work at military bases employed workers who were not vetted according to security protocols. In some cases they were suspected of knowingly hiring unauthorized workers, among them illegal infiltrators. Suspicions also arose regarding bribery of officials who were either actively or passively complicit in document forgery operations that enabled unauthorized workers to enter IDF bases, including sensitive facilities.
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A police raid uncovered evidence linking the suspects to the suspected forgery operation, including tools used to forge various documents, including driver's licenses and licenses for operating heavy machinery.
HaKol HaYehudi discovered that one of the incidents that raised the police’s suspicion occurred at the Sde Teiman base, where an Arab worker arrived to operate a steamroller despite not having the necessary security clearance, and identified himself using a driver's license belonging to someone else.
The incident was exposed, leading to investigations. Subsequently, Yazbakha's company claimed it had severed ties with the subcontractor who had brought in the worker. The subcontractor, in turn, filed a lawsuit against Yazbakha’s Meflase M.H.R. company claiming that the company never compensated him for work his company had carried out at the beginning of the war.
Meanwhile, the situation escalated into much more serious suspicions of systematic document falsification and bribery. All the while, the IDF Spokesperson’s office repeatedly stated in its responses to our many reports that everything at the bases operates under proper supervision and control.
The suspects' detention has been extended, and we must wait to see how the investigation develops. What is certain is that these revelatio
To better understand the above phenomenon, it is important to take a look back at some of the cases we at HaKol HaYehudi and other news outlets have exposed over the years.
One summer around six years ago, I received a phone call from a resident of the Jordan Valley who told me the following almost unbelievable story: there were Arab workers inside the old Tavetz military base in the Jordan Valley. Astonishingly, they were the only ones there–no soldiers, no supervisors, no one but the Arab workers. They had full control of the site and its renovations, and even prevented firefighters from entering when a fire broke out.
At first, I found it difficult to believe what I had heard. No soldiers? No security guards? After a few days, I visited the base with my friend, Tzvi Sukkot, and we saw that the base was indeed locked, with no soldiers in sight. About thirty cows were wandering around. We had just entered through a gap in the fence when a friendly Arab contractor from the terrorist village of Yatta in the Hebron Hills approached us. He asked why we had entered his base, and we replied that we were looking for soldiers. He replied, “There are no soldiers here. I run this base,” he explained on camera. “This is my territory, I live here, renovate, install cameras, lights. I have other bases, too.” He told us he had been working with the Ministry of Defense for years, including projects all along the security line.
It turns out that the base had been left in the hands of a group of two dozen Arab workers who were living there for some time. This seemed outrageous to us. HaKol HaYehudi reached out to the IDF Spokesperson, who, as usual, explained that all was well, that "all contract workers underwent a security check before working there, and the base is under the supervision and control of the IDF and Ministry of Defense." We published this story on HaKol HaYehudi’s website and on Channel 12.
Four years later, I received a call from Channel 12 asking to use the footage we had shot years earlier. I asked why they were digging it up after all this time. Their answer said it all: “Abu Latif”.
The Abu Latif clan is one of the most dangerous criminal families within Israel’s Druze population. Several of the clan’s patriarchs have served prison sentences for smuggling weapons from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Judea and Samaria. Their lawyers were able to get the national security charges dropped from the case. In the years since, the family has secured numerous Ministry of Defense construction tenders by threatening and forcing competing contractors out of the bidding process.
One of these tenders involved nothing less than the construction of a barrier on Israel’s northern border. Yes, you read that correctly–the Israeli government entrusted the Abu Latif family, known for smuggling weapons for Hezbollah, with building the border fence. In light of the war we are now fighting, this decision seems incomprehensible. To add to the irony, the same family was also contracted to build several police stations.
One of the tenders they secured was for the renovation of the Tavetz base, which we had exposed four years earlier. And the IDF Spokesperson’s explanation? “Everything is under supervision and control…”
The Tavetz base is just one example. Almost daily, and especially since the beginning of the war, HaKol HaYehudi receives reports from soldiers on the ground. Among the reports we have received and publicized in recent months were: the theft of fragmentation grenades by workers in Gaza-neighboring towns (exposed by Ayelet Lash); the theft of weapons by an illegal infiltrator employed at a paratrooper base; Arab construction workers brought in to the Nevatim military base to repair damages caused by the Iranian missile attack; and HaKol HaYehudi’s discovery that even the high-security command center for the Nevatim intelligence unit was constructed by Arabs, including illegal workers who were apprehended on-site while carrying out their work. And people continue to wonder how Hamas knew how to reach various bases on the day of the massacre, or how access codes to various areas of high-security military facilities fell into the hands of terrorists…
We receive reports almost every day from soldiers reporting the presence of Arab workers inside military bases without supervision or oversight.
Last week, I received a message from a friend currently serving as a reservist: “At a division base in central Israel, Arab workers are roaming freely, driving tractors, loading everything in sight… They could harm soldiers, not to mention steal equipment and weapons. Meanwhile every soldier who comes to report for reserve duty is delayed for an hour at security before being allowed in.”
This absurdity was illustrated disturbingly by a reservist soldier in an elite unit who was assigned, along with his fellow soldiers, to secure a high-security facility at the start of the war. He explained that due to the facility's sensitivity, they were told to leave their phones behind and not discuss the location they were meant to secure. When he arrived with his team, he was delayed for about 40 minutes while waiting for clearance to enter due to equipment he had brought with him, even though he was part of the group designated to secure the site. “Once inside,” he recalled, “after passing all the necessary security checks, I was surprised to find an Arab worker sitting casually in a military vehicle, smoking a hookah and using his phone.”
Adding to this are the numerous military vehicle and bus drivers, along with the mechanics responsible for servicing these vehicles. Two years ago in Kiryat Arba, grenades were stolen from a military vehicle by Arab workers employed at the maintenance shop where the vehicle had been sent for repairs.
Before the war, we uncovered two disturbing stories. One involved an individual who had participated in riots during Operation Guardian of the Walls (2021) and was convicted of setting a police station on fire in the Galilee. He worked as a maintenance and repair technician for IDF Navy submarines at a naval base in Haifa.
The second story involved Bilal Hamad, an Egged bus driver in Haifa. We discovered that he was a member of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement and had posted a video endorsing suicide bombers, along with messages inciting violence, including expressions of his aspiration to become a "shahid" or martyr.
Our investigation revealed that Hamad was closely connected to Ra'ad Salah, leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement. After being fired from his job at Egged following our report, he found work at an Arab-owned bus company that also transported soldiers to their operations.
Yes, you have once again read correctly. A driver who publicly supported suicide bombers was behind the wheel of a bus full of IDF soldiers. We published this shortly before the war, as well, but no one expressed interest in the matter despite our repeated requests for action.
One week after the massacre, while working in the emergency intelligence control room that we opened when the war broke out, I received a call from IDF intelligence asking, on behalf of the Shin Bet, to receive the information we had gathered on Hamad due to concerns regarding his transporting of soldiers in a time of war and all that entails.
Will the current investigation lead to change? With God's help, HaKol HaYehudi will continue to monitor the developments.
https://www.hakolhayehudi.co.il/item/english/during_the_war__arab_laborers_at_top-secret_idf_bases
