Transportation Ministry snubbed offers of help from Shin Bet, didn’t use new funds to strengthen security division — report

As the Transportation Ministry comes under scrutiny in the wake of last week’s attempt by an Omani pilot to take over a flydubai flight from the UAE to Israel, new details emerge on questionable decisions around flight security made by the ministry in recent years.

In 2025, the Shin Bet and National Security Council proposed that a Shin Bet official be lent to the ministry as the lead intelligence officer to help assess risks on foreign and charter flights into Israel, Army Radio reports, citing three sources.

Led by its security division chief Avri Cohen, the ministry opposed the idea, saying it didn’t want outside interference in its work.

According to the report, the Shin Bet then offered to host the Transportation Ministry Security Division for a multi-day seminar on threat assessment, airport and aviation security, and intelligence tools for ensuring flight security, but that didn’t take place either.

In those same discussions, the NSC pushed the Transportation Ministry to demand a budget increase from the Finance Ministry in order to upgrade outdated systems in the Aviation Security Operations Center. The NSC even told the ministry it would back the request with a professional evaluation, but the ministry did not submit the request, instead asking for increases elsewhere.

Despite the lack of a request, the Finance Ministry allocated an additional NIS 10 million and 10 positions for the Transportation Ministry’s Security Division in the 2026 budget. The ministry received the money, reports Army Radio, but has not filled any of the positions.

Moreover, earlier this year, an internal Transportation Ministry debate took place over which division would handle security for foreign and chartered flights. The Shin Bet and NSC both pushed for it to be moved to the Civil Aviation Authority, which is bigger and better equipped to handle the task than the Security Division. But in June — despite declining measures that would strengthen the division — Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Director General Moshe Ben Zaken decided to keep the mission in the Security Division, says Army Radio.

In her letter to the Shin Bet and NSC, Regev says she chose to “avoid organizational upheavals at this time” and didn’t want to waste time building up “a dedicated array in this sensitive field, which requires recruiting professional manpower, formulating an operational concept, adapting information systems.”

Responding to Army Radio, the Transportation Ministry says that it demanded additional funding, but has yet to receive it from the Finance Ministry.