- Dvir Rubinstein oversaw airline security approvals while providing paid training and consulting to flydubai and Emirates.
- The ministry said his outside work was approved, performed outside ministry hours, and carried out under an outsourcing arrangement.
- After an attempted hijacking, officials disputed responsibility for checking foreign crews; the ministry said it relied on airline security declarations.
Dvir Rubinstein oversaw Israeli security approvals for foreign airlines while providing paid training and consulting to flydubai and Emirates. The overlap put private work beside his public-facing aviation role.
He led the Transportation Ministry’s Aviation Security Operations Center, which handled security approvals and permits for foreign airlines entering Israel. The ministry said his other occupations had been approved.
The ministry described him as an outsourced service provider, not a civil servant. It said his outside jobs complied with the law and took place beyond his ministry working hours.
The ministry defended the arrangement. “Dvir Rubinstein provides services to the Transportation Ministry as part of an outsourcing arrangement and is not a civil servant. His additional occupations were approved in accordance with the law and are carried out outside his working hours under his engagement with the ministry.”
The ministry approved his outside occupations under an outsourcing deal
His remit covered “all security approvals and permits required for every airline and flight seeking to enter Israel, both in advance and in real time.” That included approvals for airlines and individual flights.
He received payment for private training work. His outside services also included consulting and training for Emirates, with trips to the United Arab Emirates to work with both carriers. He then returned to Israel and resumed oversight involving them.
The ministry said the extra occupations were approved under his engagement and performed outside its working hours. The arrangement was not described as civil-service employment.
Officials described airline declarations, not intelligence checks on pilots
A 2021 Security Cabinet decision assigned the ministry’s Civil Aviation Authority a role in verifying that foreign-country security directives complied with international conventions. The decision addressed the rules used by other countries.
The ministry’s account of crew screening was different. It said it relied on declarations from airlines and did not receive crew lists in advance. Senior ministry security official Tamir Uri said the department conducted aviation-security assessments with airlines and local authorities, while asking for confirmation that pilots had passed security checks.
Uri said: “The Security Division carries out a security assessment of aviation to Israel with the airline and local authorities. We request a declaration that all pilots have undergone a security background check. We are not an intelligence agency that conducts intelligence background checks.”
He also said, “We only received a statement from FlyDubai that those pilots underwent a security check.” Uri separately said the ministry had no forces abroad and no staff to check every person overseas.
Israel’s Tax Authority confirmed it received crew names before the flight. It checked those names for criminal status, not intelligence backgrounds. The ministry had said it did not receive the lists in advance.
The attempted hijacking sharpened the dispute over responsibility
An attempted hijacking aboard a flydubai flight renewed questions about which Israeli bodies were responsible for screening foreign crews. The ministry did not change its procedures immediately afterward, and officials said they lacked authority, manpower and intelligence capabilities to conduct checks on foreign crews themselves.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev said intelligence responsibilities belonged to other agencies. “Aviation security is a very complex issue. The entire intelligence issue is divided between the Mossad and the Shin Bet.”
She also said, “Those who are supposed to identify the crew are security officials. We are not security officials.” The Shin Bet, however, said the Transportation Ministry was responsible for vetting passenger lists from foreign flights.
The accounts described separate tasks: airline declarations and security assessments on one hand, and intelligence screening of individuals on the other. The 2021 decision concerned compliance with international conventions, while the ministry said it did not perform foreign-pilot intelligence checks.
Political demands followed the flight, as a former airport worker described admitting crews
Opposition figures Benny Gantz and Naftali Bennett demanded Regev’s ouster over the security failures. Their calls came amid the public dispute over how foreign crews were checked and which agency held responsibility.
A former worker at Ben-Gurion International Airport said she had allowed flight crew into Israel from countries without diplomatic ties, including Syria and Lebanon. Her account added an airport-entry dimension to the questions raised after the flight.
