IDF officers convicted of stealing from US youth
Taglit participants robbed by 2 non-commissioned officers they befriended while on kibbutz in northern Israel; men convicted of theft, to be expulsed from military
A court case is coming to a close against two non-commissioned IDF officers (NCO) with the rank of staff sergeant who are accused of stealing from American participants on the Taglit program.
The two men, whose military careers came to a premature end because of the incident, befriended the young American Jews, even took pictures with them, and then broke into their rooms and stole electronic appliances and money from them.
The embarrassing story comes at a time when the State of Israel is attempting to encourage the Taglit program – a 10-day visit free visit to Israel offered to American Jews across the United States in order to better acquaint them with their Jewish heritage.
The incident occurred two months ago at Kibbutz Gonen in northern Israel. The group of Americans met the two NCOs, soldiers in the IDF's teleprocessing unit, during their stay in the area. The men made friends with the Americans telling them about their military service and even taking pictures with them.
Several hours later, the two men broke into the rooms where the tourists were staying and stole a camera, six cell phones, three ipods, five SIM cards as well as $400 and NIS 440 (about $118).
The two thieves threw the stolen items in a field but split the money equally between themselves.
After the police began investigating, the two men confessed to their crime and even led police officers to where they had hurled the stolen items. Police returned them to the tourists.
Claims he was under influence
The two NCOs were indicted in a military court in Jaffa. The IDF ruled that the two men should be expulsed from the military. The military prosecutor requested that one of the men be sentenced to five months in prison.
"This is an ugly matter carried out by two NCOs in career military service, an incident of breaking and entering and theft carried out against people visiting Israel on official State invitation in order for them to serve as ambassadors to Israel abroad in the future," the prosecutor said.
The incident damaged Israel's image as well as that of the IDF and it was quite clear how the victims in the case felt about their visit once they returned to the US, he added.
The defense attorney in the case agreed that the incident was unbecoming of IDF NCOs, but asked the court to consider the her client's contribution to the State via their military service in the Second Lebanon War and the fact that two men were being expulsed from the military.
She also added that her client was attempting to make up for his mistake by accompanying visiting tourists to Israel on trips to Har Herzl in Jerusalem.
One of the guilty men said that he regretted his actions and even apologized to the tourists in a letter. He added that he had committed the act while inebriated.
The court sentenced one of the two to two months in jail, a six month suspended sentence, a fine of NIS 1,500 ($403) and demoted him to the rank of private.
The ruling for the second man in the case is to be issued in the next few days.
