Next Friday, May 8th, the sentencing in a case of alleged financial crime within the local council will take place in the Vila Nova de Gaia court. The vice-president of the municipality is accused by the prosecution of having maintained promiscuous relationships with contractors and companies dedicated to real estate deals. The case couldn't have a more symbolic name – Babel – because it revolves around the construction of a tower described as the tallest building in the Gaia city which was supposedly going to be built by the Fortera company of the Israeli Jew Elad Dror.
Initiated with a spectacular police operation on May 16, 2023, three years ago, the case has caused strangeness within the Jewish community from the beginning. The prosecution alleged that Dror benefited from "favors" from the local authority (this would be the advantage he allegedly received) and that he had contributed 1000 euros towards a watch given as a Christmas gift to the vice-president of the authority (this would be the "corruption" he allegedly perpetrated).
However, the businessman always claimed that, instead of benefiting from advantages from the local authority, his company (Fortera) was subjected to constant bureaucratic obstacles and, because of this, the work never proceeded with the desired speed. As for the watch gift, according to the businessman, the idea for the gift came from the vice-president's lawyer and was nothing more than a mere courtesy towards him.
Dror was arrested by the police three years ago (May 16, 2023) due to those facts, painted in the most vivid colors by the authorities, who spoke of a "scheme involving suspicions of corruption, prevarication, and influence peddling in urban planning licensing processes at the Vila Nova de Gaia City Hall."
Humiliated in public, the businessman was taken to the judge because the prosecution requested his preventive detention. It didn't happen. Elad Dror was released. The interrogation was marked by a hilarious moment. The judge asked the businessman: "In Israel, do you offer watches at Christmas time?" He replied: "We don't have Christmas!"
The Socialist Revenge
Before the police operation of May 2023, the Fortera company was experiencing a period of great splendor, producing valuable and beautiful developments, and employing thousands of people across its projects. The leadership of the Jewish Community of Porto had always warned Elad Dror to be wary of what they called the socialist mafia embedded in the State and the press. The businessman remained calm, unconcerned with the forces of the State, the competition, his nationality (Israeli), and the nature of the capital he invested (Israeli).
Exactly four months before the businessman was arrested, something extraordinary happened. On January 10th of the same year, 2023, LUSA (the only national news agency) cited a "socialist source" falsely claiming that Dror had been arrested as part of a criminal investigation underway in Espinho. The businessman thought it was an unintentional mix-up and journalistic malpractice, but once again he was warned within the Jewish Community of Porto that something very cruel was in store for him. And so it was. With Operation Babel, Fortera's reputation was destroyed, and it had to cease operations. Newspapers and television dedicated considerable time to the matter.
In 2024, a year after his flamboyant arrest, Elad Dror and all the Jewish businessmen of Porto were included in a list published in a socialist newspaper as being responsible for the housing crisis. No socialist government official commented on the newspaper's crime, something only seen in Europe during the Nazi era. Also in 2024, these same Israeli businessmen were the target of demonstrations against "Zionist capital," with slogans such as "We don't want to be tenants of murderous Zionists," "Neither Haifa nor Boavista," "Neither bombs in Palestine, nor evictions in Porto."
The Nationality Law and the Sephardic Jews
On May 9, 2023, while in detention, Elad Dror saw his name and his wife's name featured in newspapers as being Portuguese nationals thanks to a Sephardic certificate issued by the Jewish Community of Porto, to which they belonged. A photograph of the Kadoorie Mekor Haim synagogue was featured on newspaper covers.
Over the years, the Jewish Community of Porto has accused the Portuguese Power system of being infected by a socialist virus hostile to Israeli, to Jews, and to Israeli Jews. Dror's wife is not only Sephardic, but also a French national, and the businessman belongs to a traditional Libyan Sephardic family.
The Jewish community in Libya has significant connections with the Sephardic Jews expelled from Iberia at the end of the 15th century. The expulsion did not create a new community from scratch, but rather reconnected and integrated the ancient Jewish community of Libya with the Sephardic diaspora, profoundly influencing its cultural and religious life.
Following the expulsion, many Iberian Jews sought refuge in North Africa, with a notable number settling in Libya, particularly in Tripoli and Benghazi. The newly arrived Spanish and Portuguese Jews brought their unique traditions and expertise in trade and administration, which merged with the existing local "Musta'arabi" (Arabic-speaking) Jewish community.
The influx of Sephardim significantly increased the population and cultural level of the Libyan Jewish community. While the two groups—the established Libyan Jews and the newly arrived Sephardim—initially maintained distinct traditions, they eventually integrated.
