Court to state: Make deal on Israeli who told PA about land sales to Jews

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court suggested on Monday that the state cut a deal over an Israeli indicted for informing the Palestinian Authority about West Bank land sales to Jews.

Ezra Nawi was indicted in July for violating a provision in the Oslo Accords prohibiting Israelis from illegally aiding the PA.

The PA originally accused Nawi and others of attempted murder and conspiracy relating to the alleged killing of a Palestinian, after Nawi and the others informed on him for selling West Bank land to Jews.

However, the much harsher charges never made it into the indictment.

The prosecution appeared defiant against a compromise and sounded off about wanting to take Nawi to trial on the narrower charges, but respected the court’s request and agreed to give mediation a try before moving forward.

The story broke in January 2016 after the UVDA TV program aired an episode in which Nawi was caught on hidden camera talking about how he sets up Palestinian land brokers looking to sell land to Jews, and turns them over to PA security.

He can be heard in the video boasting about how they are later tortured and murdered.

It is implied that a Palestinian named Abu Halil was allegedly killed through this process after trying to make a deal with a Jewish buyer referred to in the program as “Yonatan.”

Nawi’s lawyer, Eytan Peleg, and Gabi Lasky, who represented Nasser Nawaja – accused along with Nawi over involvement in the Abu Halil affair – had previously beaten the state prosecution and the IDF prosecution in the civilian and IDF courts about keeping the defendants in custody.

At that stage, both courts also remarked that the evidence of the more serious charges appeared flimsy.