Arab undercover agent helps catch Jaffa rioters
A resident of northern Israel, with a past as a fighter in the Border Police, infiltrated the ranks of drug dealers and motorcycle thieves, leading to their arrest. After protests regarding the Al-Aqsa mosque became violent, the agent supplied authorities with intelligence that led to the arrest of Molotov cocktail throwers.
He did other important work when he helped provide authorities with quality intelligence from inside rioting that occurred in Jaffa recently, helping to bring perpetrators of violence to justice. "It's a great point of pride for me and my family, serving the country," he said after receiving his policeman's certificate in an official ceremony.
The agent is certainly not the type Jaffa criminals would expect to meet. His cover story was as a commuter bus driver living between Jaffa and Bat Yam. They're used to different agents who have sometimes fooled some of them, but an undercover operative who speaks native Arabic and weaves himself into the Jaffa crime families is something that hasn't been seen so far.
Other than his main work against criminal elements in Jaffa, the agent was also caught in the wave of violent events in Jaffa triggered by controversy over religious sites in Jerusalem. It was he who, among other things, supplied the intelligence that led to indictments against a number of youths who threw Molotov cocktails at security forces.
"There's nothing more fun than doing good for the citizens in a certain place in Israel," said the agent. "I joined the agents' group and understood that I was going to be in some tougher places. As an Arab guy who speaks the language, it wasn't hard for me to connect to people. As a police officer you're supposed to report events you're exposed to, and that's what I did during the protests. I took part in all sorts of conversations, and was a partner to pre-planning. I'm glad it helped."
The agent and his operators remember that is uncle suspected him of being involved in crime. “He called me and told me, what do you have to do with commuter driving?” the agent recalls, “In the end, I managed to convince him I was okay. Today, he was excited and very proud when he was at the ceremony and saw everything.”
