Restaurateur who employed Palestinian killer jailed
Tzachi Antebi given six-month term for illegally hiring man who later murdered an Israeli soldier
The Tel Aviv District Court on Monday sentenced the owner of a local restaurant who illegally employed a Palestinian to six months in jail, community service and a NIS 12,000 ($3,133) fine, after the worker murdered another employee at the restaurant in a nationalistic attack.
Judge Limor Margolin-Yehidi said in her ruling that Israel was faced with combating the phenomenon of “lone wolf” terror attacks, and that employers like Tzahi Antebi must be held responsible for employing Palestinian workers with no permits.
Despite Antebi’s remorse, his clean criminal record and the damage to his business caused by the incident, Margolin-Yehidi justified the sentence, saying she hoped it would deter employers from hiring illegal workers, according to a report on the NRG website.
“Balancing the different considerations led me to reach the conclusion that it is appropriate to give the maximum jail sentence, community service and fines,” she said.
In 2013, Antebi was convicted of unlawful employment and for housing one of his employees, Nidal Amar — who didn’t have an Israeli work permit — in an apartment above his Bat Yam restaurant.
Amar, a 42-year-old Palestinian resident of Beit Amin south of Qalqilya, lured fellow employee Tomer Hazan — a soldier in the army — to his West Bank village on September 21, 2013, where he murdered him.
Nidal Amar’s brother, Nuraddin — a member of the Fatah Tanzim terror group, who has been serving time in an Israeli jail since 2003 for his role in several terror attacks — was also convicted of persuading his brother to kidnap the soldier in the hope of trading Hazan’s body for his own release.
According to the Shin Bet, Amar admitted to picking up Hazan in a taxi after convincing him to accept a ride. He took the soldier to an open field, killed him and threw his body in a well, the agency said.
At the time, Antebi insisted to investigators that Amar had a permit to work in Israel, but Shin Bet sources quoted by media reports said that this was not the case.
The Times of Israel Community.