Palestinian couple allegedly lived in Israel over 20 years under false identity

The Israel Police arrested on Wednesday a Palestinian couple on suspicion of living in Israel for over two decades using a false identity.

The couple, residing in the Israeli city of Rahat, north of Beersheva, is originally from the Palestinian city of Halhul, north of Hebron in Judea.

According to police, the suspects wed 20 years ago but shortly afterward filed for divorce so the woman could fraudulently obtain an Israeli identity card.

The man, 57, who holds a “family unification” permit allowing him to reside periodically in Rahat, married an Israeli citizen from Ar’ara BaNegev, southeast of Beersheva, whom he had never met, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported.

This woman’s identity was allegedly “adopted” by the Palestinian divorcée, 43, and the two Palestinians have since lived in Israel. The Palestinian couple eventually remarried, according to police.

The investigators of the case found that whenever the suspects visited Halhul, they referred to the woman by her true name, and upon returning to Rahat, they used her false name in engagements with their surroundings, the Kan report read.

The female suspect gave birth to their children at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, all under her allegedly false identity, has received money from the state eligible for Israeli citizens, and established with her husband Israeli firms under her Israeli name, police said.

According to outlet Ynet, Superintendent Barak Ravivo, commander of the Intelligence and Investigations branch in the “Arrow of Judah” unit of the Israel Police, said: “It appears that this is the longest-running impersonation under a false identity that the State of Israel has known throughout its 78 years of existence. Although we are at the initial stages of the overt investigation, one of the main objectives is, among other things, to uncover what happened to the young woman whose identity was acquired by the two primary suspects.”