Israel charges cop for exposing Jewish woman in Palestinians' car

Israel said Thursday it has laid charges against a policeman accused of sending details to extremists of a Jewish woman who was riding in a car with Palestinian men.

The justice ministry filed charges Wednesday against border police officer Matan Amichai, who in December 2014 stopped a car in a routine check near the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

"In the vehicle were two Silwan residents and two young Jewish women," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"The accused, who was on duty there at the time, took the identity card of one of the young women and photographed it with his mobile phone."

Israeli ID cards carry, among other details, the holder's picture, address and marital status.

The statement said Amichai sent the image to the head of Lehava, an extremist rightwing Israeli group, and to former parliament member Michael Ben-Ari, a follower of late anti-Arab rabbi Meir Kahane.

In a message accompanying the picture, sent to Lehava's Benzi Gopstein, he said the two women went on a trip with the men to the Red Sea resort of Eilat.

"Here is the ID of one of the girls, please do something," the statement quoted him as writing.

"I wanted to cry," he allegedly wrote to Ben-Ari.

Amichai was charged with invasion of privacy and abuse of his authority. No trial date was set.

In August 2014 Lehava activists staged a rally where racist slogans, including "Death to Arabs!", were shouted at the wedding near Tel Aviv of a Muslim man and Jewish woman.

Gopstein was questioned by police last year after he condoned torching churches in Israel, in accordance with a mediaeval Jewish commandment to destroy places of idol-worship.
SourcE :AFP