Speaking at a real estate conference in Eilat, Meir Deutsch, director of the Regavim organization, discussed the phenomenon of paying protection money to criminal groups in Israel, and the effect this is having on society in general.
"This is a problem that is entirely different from how people envision it," Deutsch told Israel National News. "It has reached the stage where it threatens the personal security of regular Israeli citizens, and I don't mean just in the Negev. 85 percent of Israel's building contractors across the country are paying protection money. This drives house prices up, and it also affects agriculture, businesses, and service providers.
"People think that protection is when someone threatens you with a gun, demanding to get money or he'll shoot. That's not the case; it doesn't work like that. What happens is that if someone opens a cell phone store in Beer Sheva, a young man walks into the store to congratulate him on the occasion and then gives him a calling card, telling him that, 'Lately, there's been a wave of fires and here's the number of a great security company. So long.' That's it, and if the store owner calls the number on the card, then he'll pay the 'company's' fee and cover his expenses in the prices he charges to his customers. If, on the other hand, he doesn't call the number, then his store will be burned down. READ MORE