Israel Matzav

Raw video: 'Palestinians' escape into Israel

In this video from Channel 2 television, two trucks stop alongside Highway 6 (the trans-Israel highway) and you see tens of 'Palestinians' escaping from the truck into the nearby 'Israeli Arab' village of Jatt.

Let's go to the videotape and then I'll have the written story of what happened.



I believe this is the same story.

A refrigerated truck pulled over by the Border Police in the North was found to contain 70 illegal Palestinian workers crammed inside on Sunday morning.

The truck driver, a resident of Abu Gosh near Jerusalem, was arrested, and Border Police have begun questioning the illegal workers.

"The conditions in which they were transported were not even suitable for animals," Supt. Yossi Priante, who commands the Northern Border Police's Boundary Company, told the Jerusalem Post. [Who cares? It was their choice! CiJ].

Note that JPost doesn't give you the impression that anyone escaped.

Now, here's some of YNet's coverage.

The men were caught after Border Guard officers performing routine vehicle inspection on Highway 6 ordered the driver, manning the wheel of a refrigeration truck, to pull over. When the officers opened the back of the truck, they found dozens of illegal aliens crammed into it.

"We honestly didn’t expect to find this many people in the truck," Border Guard Chief-Inspector Yossi Frienti told Ynet. "It was an inhumane sight, unfortunately. Animals shouldn’t be transported like that, let alone people."

The passengers, he added, rallied to the driver's defense, saying he was simply "giving them a lift."

An initial investigation revealed that the Palestinians boarded the truck in the northern Jerusalem Shufat neighborhood, en route to Wadi Ara. The driver was to be paid a fee of NIS 250-300 (roughly $65-$80) for each passenger. [That's many times the ordinary bus fare. CiJ].

The Palestinians were returned to Palestinian Authority territory.

Go back and watch that video again. With one police officer in the car that pulled that truck over, do you think any of them escaped?

Now, to put it in perspective: The Channel 2 news broadcast said that dozens of trucks like that transport 'Palestinians' daily and that it was pure luck that this one was caught.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:21 PM