Two Indicted for Pretending to Be Israeli Citizens to Defraud Government
Two individuals from Halhul, PA, are indicted for posing as Israeli citizens and defrauding the state by using a deceased infant's identity for citizenship.
Jerusalem, 18 May, 2026 (TPS-IL) — The State Attorney’s Office filed an indictment with the Beer Sheva District Court against two residents of Halhul in the Palestinian Authority, after they allegedly pretended to be Israeli citizens for years and fraudulently received rights and benefits from the state.
According to the allegations, the defendant contacted an Israeli citizen resident of Arara in the Negev, whose daughter died shortly after her birth and whose death was not reported to the authorities. In exchange for thousands of Jordanian dinars, the defendants received the deceased daughter’s personal details.
The defendant then arrived with the defendant and the deceased’s mother at the Population Authority office in Beersheba, where she pretended to be the deceased’s daughter, and based on the false representation, she registered as an Israeli citizen and received an identity card in her name.
The indictment also states that the defendants, despite being married, were registered in the Israeli Sharia court as a couple who had married for the first time, in order to regulate the defendant’s status as part of the family unification process.
