Eliraz Sadeh has called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss Transport Minister Miri Regev if an investigation determines she bears responsibility for the security failure that allowed an Omani co-pilot to board a Fly Dubai flight bound for Israel.
Writing on Monday, Sadeh stated: "If Miri Regev is responsible for the aviation security failure, Netanyahu must fire her."
The statement comes amid a growing dispute over who is accountable for vetting foreign airline crew members flying into Israel, after the Omani co-pilot attempted to take control of the Fly Dubai aircraft en route from Dubai to Israel.
Regev has rejected claims that the Transport Ministry bears responsibility for the lapse. According to the minister, "the Transport Ministry is not an intelligence body," and it is not the agency tasked with conducting intelligence checks on foreign crew members. She argued that when a foreign carrier is involved, intelligence responsibility falls to the security services.
However, Channel 12 News reported that in recent months, the Shin Bet sent three separate documents to the transport minister, the Transport Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, warning of gaps in the screening of flights operated by foreign airlines. According to the report, the Shin Bet recommended transferring oversight of charter flights to the Civil Aviation Authority, but Regev did not accept their recommendation.
Immediately after the attempted attack, Regev demanded that Fly Dubai flights to Israel be halted pending a full investigation into the incident. The minister claimed at the time that the airline had violated the aviation agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates by assigning an Omani pilot to a flight to Israel.
