15 Israelis Detained for Smuggling Drugs in the Last Month

“As long as a Jew who put another Jew at risk for years of imprisonment, and everyone knows about it, will continue to be called up to the Torah in Shul, this phenomenon will not stop,” said Attorney Mordechai Tzivin of Kfar Chabad, at the recent event benefitting the Podim organization, which deals with redemption of prisoners, counseling and rescue of Jewish detainees around the world.

The organization, an initiative of Dayan Chaim Dovid Yossef Weiss, known as the “Chido” from Antwerp, a Satmar Chosid who has been involved in the redemption of Jewish prisoners around the world for many years, including the yeshiva boys were imprisoned in Japan in 2011.

The organization was founded by him and other Chasidic activists from Europe, due to the increase in arrests following diamond smuggling, tax offenses, money laundering, other white-collar offenses and various types of drug smuggling which have occurred in recent years.

At the conference, Attorney Tzivin, who handles cases of Qat (a soft drug) smuggling offenses pro bono, as well as other cases when it comes to families from low socioeconomic status, said that in the last month alone, 15 young men and women were arrested un Europe for smuggling Qat.

Tzivin says that in his opinion: “The law enforcement authorities in Israel should intervene in order to stop the Qat smuggling.” Although the Israeli police cannot intervene when Qat is considered a legal drug in Israel, it is still possible to get the police to deal with those who send young men and women to smuggle Qat by filing complaints of fraud and deception. Tzivin added that it is also possible to prevent these cases if the tax and money laundering authorities intervene before it happens.

Dayan Weiss, who was involved in the release of the young men in Japan, said that “young people should be educated to refrain from being involved in criminal cases, and that the general public should know that the laws of each and every country should be followed, and that strict adherence to the laws of the land should be observed (“Dina d’malkhuta Dina”).

Tzivin also blames the ultra-Orthodox society, and what he says is a “forgiving attitude towards the offenders,” as one of the reasons why the drug smuggling phenomenon does not stop. Those who mislead young people and use them to smuggle the drugs must be ostracized, and their names should be publicized and in some cases reported to the police, Tzivin says. Unfortunately, they are not condemned, they even get “called up at the Torah reading, as if nothing is wrong.” The act of ‘pidyon shvuyim’ should be before the smuggling and imprisonment, not after. The captured courier must be redeemed from those who attempt to use them for their own gain.

Tzivin claims that the arrests for these offenses have nothing to do with Anti-Semitism. People are arrested for committing an offense, not for any other reason.

Dayan Weiss added that he witnesses the Chessed in ultra-Orthodox society, and therefore people willingly accept packages for transfer abroad, and reminded that one should be suspicious and respectful at once “Kabdehu veChashdehu”, to check carefully the contents of each package they are asked to carry, even when given by acquaintances or friends.

The event was produced by Weinberger Events, and sponsored by businessman Shmuel Shapira, son of the late Rabbi Avraham Yosef Shapira, former Member of Knesset’s Agudat Israel political party.

The event was attended by Rabbis from Vienna, Askonim, distinguished members of the community and Rabbi Menachem Einhorn from London.