Illegal Palestinian man arrested working at nursing home
Police arrested the man after he was caught up in a separate investigation regarding brothels; the man used an Israeli-Arab woman's identity card to fraudulently obtain employment at a nursing home for several months.
The man, a resident of the West Bank, was arrested during a police investigation into brothels in Jerusalem.
During a search for suspects involved in the operation of the brothels, police arrived at an apartment in Bat Yam where they came across the Palestinian, who had been living there for several months.
During the course of the investigation into the man, police learned he had been working for several months at a nursing home in the center of the country, which he obtained by using an Israeli identity card belonging to an Arab-Israeli woman.
According to the man, he presented the identity card to his employers who not only failed to notice that the identity card did not belong to him, but also that it was a woman's. Police have questioned the nursing home and investigators believe that they did not knowingly employ an illegal alien.
The suspect was brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, which extended his remand in preparation for a police indictment.
The arrest comes on the heels of a report by Yedioth Ahronoth and Ynet investigating nursing homes. Reporter Ariela Sternbach managed to gain employment in over 14 institutions, the vast minority of which required an interview or background check of some kind.
"Many of the nursing homes immediately told me 'come,' without asking who I was, what I want or what my background was," said Sternbach. "I could have been a professional thief and gained employment just to steal—a story I heard many times from several elderly people. I could have even been a sadist, it doesn't matter."
