"It is forbidden to work here": How competitors are threatened in the Negev

"We are saying that it is forbidden to work here. If you don't want problems, it's not worth it for you to mess with us," this is how Muhammad Abu Galbin (29) from Rahat sounded in a phone call with a business competitor regarding the supply of groceries to foreign workers in the Negev. This threatening call was one of many in which Sami Abu Galbin and his nephew Muhammad issued warnings to a business owner selling agricultural produce and consumer goods to Thai and other workers in moshavim and kibbutzim across the country.

To deliver the goods, the business owner employed his son and a farm worker. In the western Negev, they encountered members of the Abu Galbin family, who operated a similar business. Realizing that competition could harm their interests, the Abu Galbin family members reportedly exploited their proximity to criminal elements in the Bedouin sector to threaten their competitors.

For example, Sami Abu Galbin arrived at Moshav Kadesh Barnea while his competitor was present and threatened him: "I have been working here for 30 years and you are coming and ruining it for me," he said, while making a throat-slitting gesture. To prove the severity of his threats, he told the worker that his own brother was paralyzed in a wheelchair after he himself shot him.

A series of threats were voiced repeatedly against the business owner and his employees, occurring in locations such as Bvuim, Moshav Perei Tza'ah, and the Eshkol region.

One day, Sami Abu Galbin noticed his competitors' truck driving near Rahat. He demanded they stop, and when they refused, he overtook their vehicle and attempted to block them by cutting between lanes. The competitor subsequently filed a police complaint, providing recordings and video documentation of the threats.

Following the investigation, the Southern District Attorney's Office received the case file. Attorney Ilan Aginsky filed an indictment containing five counts of extortion by threats at the District Court in Be'er Sheva, along with a request to hold the defendants in custody until the end of legal proceedings.

"The defendants extorted the complainants with severe threats and caused them to be afraid to come to the western Negev area and earn a living from the fruit of their labor, lest they suffer severe physical harm," the arrest request stated. "There is a reasonable basis for the fear that if they are released, they will try to disrupt legal proceedings and evade justice."