A potentially grave breach of security has been detected in the construction industry, according to a report in Israel Hayom. The system for issuing work permits to Palestinian laborers has apparently been infiltrated, with hundreds of Palestinians registered for non-existent work; fortunately, the attempt was detected before too much time passed.
Those behind the attempt identified Israeli building contractors who do not usually hire Palestinian labor, and registered hundreds of Arabs as working for them. The Arabs then received work permits which enabled them to cross from PA-controlled areas into Israel. Crossing illegally is a criminal offense, and this particular scheme would also have involved other issues such as laborers working without insurance.
The work permit system is managed by the "Employers' Site" under the auspices of the Civil Administration, the quasi-government of Judea and Samaria. Recently, a number of building contractors received notification from the Population and Immigration Authority that they had delayed in submitting the identifying details for Palestinian laborers employed by them, and that they must submit those details in order for them to receive pay slips (which are issued by the Authority and not the employers themselves). The notifications aroused suspicion, and after some investigation, it emerged that all those contractors contacted were those who had ceased employing Palestinian labor some time ago.
On Tuesday, Bonei Ha'Aretz, an organization of contractors, wrote a sharply-worded letter to the Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, on the matter, notifying him of the illegitimate attempts to procure work permits and the security breach exposed.
In the letter, Amnon Merhav, head of Bonei Ha'Aretz, described "a third attempt of those known to us in the last few months, which could have damaged state security and led to criminal events.
"Last week," Merhav continued, "two former contractors discovered to their surprise that the system for registering Palestinian laborers had been hacked and hundreds of laborers registered as working for them. These workers received work permits and entered Israel to work. As soon as they became aware of this, the contractors made haste to cancel the permits and submit a complaint to the police -- but they have yet to receive any official confirmation regarding their complaint. A copy of the complaint they sent to the police was also sent to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories which did confirm the receipt of the complaint and commented that this incident shows that the system is not sufficiently secure."