Israeli accused of aiding suicide bomber

An Israeli taxi driver has been arrested for driving a Palestinian suicide bomber to the site of an attack last month.

It is the first time a Jew has been accused of assisting a bomber in the past three years of fighting, the prime minister’s office said today.

Ofer Shwartzboim, a 39-year-old resident of the West Bank settlement of Oranit, drove the bomber and an accomplice to the Geha highway near Tel Aviv on December 25, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The bomber, from the Palestinian village of Beit Furik, blew up in a bus stop, killing four Israelis.

Sitting in a courtroom with his head bowed, Shwartzboim said he didn’t know the Palestinian in the back seat of his taxi was a bomber.

“Do you have any doubt ... that I knew anything?” Shwartzboim asked. “A great tragedy happened.”

Shwartzboim told interrogators he often drove illegal Palestinian workers into Israel, the prime minister’s office said. It is illegal to assist Palestinians without permits to enter the country. The law is aimed at preventing suicide attacks.

In the past, Israeli Jews have been convicted of selling arms to Palestinians. But it was the first time a Jew was arrested for helping a bomber carry out an attack since violence erupted in September 2000.

Israeli Arabs have been convicted of assisting Palestinian attackers.

In the past, an Israeli court sentenced an Israeli Arab to 10 years in prison for driving a bomber to an attack site.

Shwartzboim was arrested on January 8, the prime minister’s office said, and confessed to driving the bomber and his accomplice to the Geha highway.

Shwartzboim said the bomber’s accomplice had called him and asked for a ride from the nearby Arab-Israeli town of Kfar Kassem to the bus stop.

During the short ride, the men told Shwartzboim they were going to get money from an employer and did not have permits to be in the country, the statement said.