Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has worked over the past several months to support the establishment of a new Arab mobile phone company in Judea and Samaria. Olmert has worked to provide frequencies for the Qatar-based company, despite objections from officials in the General Security Services (Shabak). The son of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is among the company’s partners.
Olmert’s aides said on Monday night that IDF officials and former Defense Minister Amir Peretz had supported the decision to grant frequencies to the new company. Olmert did not know that Abbas’s son was involved in the project, they said.