Senior IDF officer gets 5 year jail term on bribery charges

A senior IDF officer was sentenced to five years in jail on Monday for taking bribes totaling 250,000 shekels in exchange for the granting of illegal work permits to Palestinian laborers. Maj. Yosef Zeid an officer in the IDF Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria was sentenced by military court for bribery, forgery, actions that endangered the security of the state, fraud, and aiding the illegal entry of individuals into Israel.  The court said that Zeid received 250,000 shekels in exchange for issuing 200 Israeli work permits for Palestinian laborers from the West Bank. His actions could have endangered the security of the state, the court found. Zeid was also convicted of illegally employing and providing lodging to Palestinian laborers at his home.  Aside from the jail sentence, Zeid was slapped with a 30,000 shekel fine and was demoted to the rank of private.