Investigators from the serious corruption unit of the Israel Police raided the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on Wednesday in an investigation into diplomatic passports being given to people who were not authorized to receive them. The police conducted a search and confiscated documents.
"Lahav 433 began a covert investigation several weeks ago, into suspicions that diplomatic passports were issued to persons not eligible to receive them because they do not meet the legal standards," the police said in a statement. "Today investigators confiscated relevant documents in their search."
The police were reviewing diplomatic passports issued during Energy Minister Eli Cohen's time as foreign minister, including the passport issued to Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yair and his brother Avner were both given the passports despite the objection of ministry officials who insisted they were not eligible to receive them.
"There was plenty fishy in how passports were dealt with and it's good that, finally, the police were investigating," an official said. They claimed that politicians intervened and pressured the ministry's staff. "Ministry professionals opposed, but were ignored," a senior ministry staffer said. "It is about time that these shenanigans stop."
A diplomatic passport does not provide diplomatic immunity to non-diplomats, but it does come with perks, including exemption from lines and from some security checks at airports, access to VIP lounges and even financial benefits including discounts in duty-free shops. It is often seen as a badge of honor and is regarded by law enforcement overseas as an indication of a person's special status.
When Cohen served as foreign minister, he was urged by the ministry's professional not to issue a diplomatic passport for Yair Netanyahu, claiming it was an explosive matter and that there was no valid reason for it. But the then-newly appointed minister insisted.
He convened a commission to look into the matter but even after that commission found that there were no grounds to issue the passport to the prime minister's son, Cohen did so.
Some officials said Yair Netanyahu who is in his 30s, was just extending an existing diplomatic passport but he had not had one since he became an adult.
The official request was made to the head of the consular section in the ministry, claiming that since the young Netanyahu traveled abroad with bodyguards and they had diplomatic passports, he should be given one too, for security reasons.
Cohen had previously served as intelligence minister in Netanyahu's government and, as such, chaired a committee that decided to provide Shin Bet bodyguards for Netanyahu's wife and two sons, although such protection has only been extended to the president, prime minister, ministers of defense and foreign affairs, the chief justice and the Knesset speaker.
Amid criticism of the move, Cohen said he was following the guidance of security agencies although those claims were never confirmed.
During Cohen's tenure at the ministry, diplomatic passports were issued to the head of the settlers' council, officials close to the ruling Likud Party and the mayors of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The Foreign Ministry also issued temporary diplomatic passports to Sara Netanyahu, Supreme Court justices and their partners, former chiefs of the military, including Aviv Kochavi "who was participating in Israel's advocacy efforts abroad," and former justice Elyakim Rubinstein, who held "senior positions in the ministry."
According to Israeli law, diplomatic passports can be given to diplomats, ministers and members of the Knesset, the police commissioner, the chief of military staff and the head of Israel's security agencies. In the past, diplomatic passports were given to religious leaders and other notables but that practice was stopped.