Defense Ministry Appeals Decision to Pay Reward in Majdi Halabi Case

In a case that has been ongoing since 2012, the Defense Ministry has asked an appeals court to revisit its decision that the Kozli brothers be paid NIS 10 million for finding the remains of IDF soldier Majdi Halabi. The Ministry said that the decision by the court that the brothers collect on a reward offered for finding the soldier was offered because it was believed that he was lost abroad, not inside Israel.

IDF soldier Halabi went missing May 24, 2005 as he left his home for the army base he was serving at, near Haifa. He took money out of an automatic teller machine in Daliat al-Carmel and waited at a nearby hitchhiking post. Two days later, his parents received word that Majdi had never arrived at his base. A search ensued, but Majdi was never found, with security official speculating that he had been kidnapped by terrorists and transported to Syria or Lebanon.

He was eventually found in 2012 by Khader and Ibrahim Kozli, two members of the Druze community and residents of Daliat al-Carmel. The two were working clearing trees from a forest fire in the Carmel Forest when they found Majdi’s remains.

After Halabi went missing, an organization called “Lachofesh Nolad” (Born to be Free) offered a $10 million prize for information on the whereabouts of the soldier, and the brothers attempted to collect. But the Ministry refused to pay, saying that the money was never meant for the discovery of the soldier’s remains in a patch of forest in Israel.

In 2012 the organization disbanded, and the Kozli brothers demanded that the Defense Ministry pay the reward. The Ministry refused, and the case has been in the courts ever since. The court said it would render a decision on the Ministry’s latest appeal in the coming weeks.