Police find evidence of illegal membership drives ahead of party primaries.
By YIGAL GRAYEFFlabor logo 88(photo credit: )
The National Fraud Unit has found evidence of wrongdoing in the Labor primaries among taxi drivers and a security worker at Ben Gurion Airport, the National Police Spokesman's unit said on Monday.
After investigating several people and viewing what appeared to be fake membership forms, the investigators passed the material to prosecutors in Tel Aviv who will decide whether to press charges against those under suspicion.
Police suspect that the Association of Taxi Drivers in Gush Dan recruited dozens of new members for Labor while paying for their fees from the association's finances or from those of the taxi stations. Police have evidence that association chairman Yehuda Bar Or illegally returned membership fees to dozens of taxi drivers, as did Rafi Atar, a member of the association's management and the manager of a taxi station in Holon.
Bar Or was unimpressed with the accusations. "Everything is nonsense and will become clear in court," he said, but declined to provide further comment.
Police said there was also evidence that a security worker at Ben Gurion Airport paid the membership fees for her relatives. Police believe she did this on the instructions of a senior Histadrut worker acting under his own volition, although they still lacked evidence.
Labor party spokesman Tom Wagner had little reaction to the allegations, saying only that they were directed against specific individuals in the party.