The story of the Israeli security apparatus’ handling of the Dawabshe murder case is beyond pathetic. It’s outright malfeasance, if not criminal negligence. The Shabak has known who murdered them almost since the family died in an arson attack in the village of Duma near Nablus (killing the mother, father, and baby boy and leaving alive one orphaned son). But it refused to pursue the case. Why? The defense minister claimed that doing so would expose intelligence methods and compromise sources.
I learned from a confidential source that this meant that there was a Shabak undercover agent among the conspirators. But it was much more complicated and troubling than that. The undercover agent actually betrayed the security agency in much the same way that Avishai Raviv did when he goaded Yigal Amir to assassinate Yitzhak Rabi and “neglected” to tell his bosses of the killer’s plans. In other words, the Shabak’s man inside the conspiracy knew about the plans for the arson attack and may even have incited it himself. Yet, he never told his handlers about it, leaving three innocent Palestinians dead as a result.
You can imagine this would cause a black eye for the entire agency and especially for the Jewish terror division, which ran the undercover spy. This unit already has an atrocious reputation for not solving crimes involving Jewish suspects. In fact, I’d say it’s almost the job of this unit NOT to solve such crimes.
As a result, the security apparatus went into CYA mode. It refused to pursue the case at all. It put a few settler leaders under administrative detention. Among them Meir Ettinger, Meir Kahane’s grandson, whom the Shabak said was the architect of the plot (though not a participant).
Though the secret police now claim they’re about to solve the case, there is only one reason for this, and it has nothing to do with any technical or legal issues. The only reason there is any action is because two petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court demanding that the Attorney General and Defense Minister be held responsible for refusing to prosecute. One petition was filed by Meretz MK Issawi Freij and the second by members of the Israeli-Palestinian Joint List Knesset faction. The latter petition argued that there can be no preference given to protecting intelligence sources over doing what is just; nor a preference given to administrative detention over a judicial proceeding open to the entire public. The petitioners reminded the court of their opposition to the use of administrative detention against Palestinian and Jewish prisoners.
Undoubtedly, the State prosecutor told the cabinet officers that if they refused to proceed the Supreme Court would likely hold them in contempt of court. To avoid the chastisement they’ve now assured the public with a great flourish that the crime will be solved.
The reports linked in the above paragraph both note that there are secret developments under gag order, which Israeli media may not report. But guess who can report them? Thanks to a well-informed Israeli source (confirmed by this Facebook post by a settler defense committee), I can say the information under gag is that two suspects who are members of the most extremist settler faction, the Hilltop Youth, have been arrested. One is Elisha Odess (pictured here), age 17, and the other, Hanoch Ganiram. Ganiram’s grandfather, Yitzhak, was a member of the Jewish Underground, a settler terror group which planted bombs which severely wounded several senior West Bank political leaders in the 1980s. Apparently, the rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Now grandfather and grandson each have something to take pride in: they’ve murdered innocent Palestinians in cold blood and gotten away with it.
Odess lives in an illegal outpost associated with Kfar Tapuach, one of the most violent settlements, which has cultivated other Israeli mass murderers like Eden Natan Zada. Ganiram is from another settlement known for violence, Homesh.
If you understand Hebrew and want to hear what the mother of a Jewish terrorist sounds like, listen to a lecture Ganiram’s mother gave (6th audio program from the top) on a Kol Yisrael radio program about “keeping faith in the midst of everyday life.” Considering her son destroyed a Palestinian family and home, it’s painfully irony that the name of this radio program is “The Jewish Home” (no connection to the political party, Bayit Yehudi).
These arrests are under gag order and may not reported in the Israeli press. Though oddly, the Israeli court system published on its website information about a hearing for Ganiram on November 29th (without particulars of the charges against him).
It’s important to add that these arrests mean very little unless all the murderers are brought to justice. That means convicted and sentenced to long prison terms and not pardoned by a future President, as most Jewish terrorists are. As an aside, the murderers of Mohammed Abu Khdeir were just convicted of burning the 16-year-old East Jerusalem boy to death in a heinous act of Jewish terror a few years ago. In an interesting aside, the actual murderer, a moment before his guilt was declared, provided the court an affidavit claiming insanity. When the judges hearing the case agreed to consider the opinion (which they had no obligation to do under law), the architect of the crime was not convicted, while his two accomplices were.
It is common practice for Jewish terrorists to claim insanity. Israeli judges like to have the option of declaring Jewish suspects not terrorists, but mentally ill. This defense was tried unsuccessfully in the Jack Teitel case and successfully in the Julien Soufir case.
To pretend to be so well informed and not to know where Duma is located…
(to mention one inaccuracy of many)
Zio-Dio-Genius:
Go ahead genius, mention them all. I dare you.
I’ll try to give you a short list of inaccuracies:
1. “Israeli-Palestinian Joint List Knesset faction” there is no such faction. You probably meant the “Joint List”.
2. “Kfar Tapuach, one of the most violent settlements”. As someone who lives in the area and knows several people that live there, this is very far from the truth. I believe that you (along with many other people) fell for this story that was started some 15-20 years ago. The fact that a murderer came from a place doesn’t make the whole place violent.
3. “Considering her son destroyed a Palestinian family and home” Innocent until proven guilty?!?
4. “the architect of the crime was not convicted”. The key missing word here is yet. He has not been convicted as the court is waiting for the outcome of a psychiatric evaluation. You make it sound like he was let off the hook.
Final note, lest you think that I approve or support these people, I wish to state clearly that I would like nothing less than have them rot in jail (after they have their day in court, of course).
I would be happy to read more of what you bring, if you could do so at least semi-objectively.
@ The G: You do not understand what “inaccuracy” means.
First, The Joint List is an Israeli-Palestinian Knesset faction just as Likud and other Jewish parties have Knesset factions. So this is not an inaccuracy.
Second, Kfar Tapuach is widely known as a hotbed of violence against Palestinians. Of course, since you acknowledge you are a settler and share the views of those who live there you would object to this designation. A 5 second Google search turned up numerous examples of websites which note the settlement’s penchant for violence and terror attacks. INcluding this passage from a Council on Foreign Relations report on Kahanism:
Anyone who kills a baby is a nasty thug. If these four Jewish pogromists are innocent they should be able to prove it in a trial. I look forward to it.
There is no “yet” in the sentence I wrote about the murder trial because the cheap legal trick attempted by the defense could easily lead to a retrial or the killer being let off as mentally ill. Either option will further delay justice being done. So saying the ringleader of the murder “was not convicted” is perfectly reasonable. He literally was not convicted. Period.
In short, you have exposed precisely 0 inaccuracies in my post. But I will point you to an inaccuracy in a different post I wrote last night which other readers caught (not you). I mistranslated “tomato juice” for “grape juice!” If you look harder you might be able to enjoy a few Gotcha moments here catching errors. But this comment didn’t offer any.
I could care less about your views of these murderers. Nor do I believe anything you say about your views regarding them. You live near and sympathize with the Kahanists of Kfar Tapuach. That’s all we need to know. If you really wanted to make a strong statement regarding settler terrorism you’d either leave the stolen land you occupy or you’d express willingness to live there under Palestinian sovereignty along with your willingness to see Palestinians return to their homes inside Israel; just as you view yourself as returning to an ancestral Jewish home. As I don’t hear you saying any of those things, I have no interest in your efforts to whitewash your conscience.
“I would like nothing less than have them rot in jail (after they have their day in court, of course).”
How about Palestinian terrorists? They are usually shot without trial (video’s of these ‘incidents’ are all over the internet) and their houses destroyed. Do you think they should have their day in court as well, or is that only for Jews? Do you think the houses of these Jewish terrorists should be blown up?
Actually, although I disagree with Richard’s views on almost everything the reason I keep coming back to his blog is because of his impeccable sources within the Israeli security establishment. I live in Israel and I know that if I really want to be up to date with what’s going on behind the scenes, then chances are it’s in this blog.
For raw news/intelligence scoops this is the place to be.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Silverstein, for taking a courageous stand.
@ Harry Davis: Thanks for that. It means a lot. That’s one of the main reasons I do this. To help Israelis know the things their government and censors don’t want them to.
Very inaccurate, this Silverstein is unreliable, another self hating Jew or maybe not
@ Meyer: I don’t usually publish garbage comments like yours which are nothing more than personal opinion. But I loved how you hedged your bets here:
And simply had to publish it. But if you publish another comment in the same vein that doesn’t catch my fancy, look out.
Thabjs for this info!!
I understand there is a second major gag order in place on a completely unrelated topic.
You got anything?
@ Anonymous: Please pick another name. There are way too many commenters choosing the same one & it confuses everyone.
Yes, I know about it & I’m trying furiously to confirm it. It’s a BIG story.
UPDATE: I haven’t been able to confirm this story you’ve mentioned. So until I can, I consider it either a hoax, disinformation, or just plain wrong.
I’ll have to agree with Harry on this one – thank you for publishing these news Richard.
I will say one thing in defense of the police though – handling cases like this isn’t as simple as you make it seem. You can’t just barge in, blowing your whistle and flashing your badge, arrest everyone and be over – you need to collect more evidence and build a stronger case if you don’t want these assholes to walk free within days (and keep in mind that they can probably afford damn good lawyers). Technically, it’s the police/state attorneys interest to stretch this story as much as they can, taking their time to collect more data (assuming non of the suspects was trying to flee or sabotage evidence), and picking the right time to blow everything and go public, instead of being forced to do that by the supreme court. However, in this case there’s also the matter of public trust, which was going down the drain as time went on, so I agree that the overall handling of this business was horrible, especially given the statements of the defense minister.
One more point – I understand that some of the suspects were detained using the “ticking bomb” legislation, which is a precedence in fighting Jewish terrorism. I assume most of the readers of this blog would oppose these laws categorically, but as it is – having them used indiscriminately is still infinitely better than the alternative.
While the info is interesting and there is a good reason for criticizing the Israeli law enforcement forces, there is no reason to make things sound worse than they are. Why to write “which has cultivated other Israeli mass murderers like Eden Natan Zada”. How many Israeli mass murderers are there? In which time span? reading this line makes one think it is a common thing, which is not true.
You also write, regarding the murder of Abu Khdeir trial “the architect of the crime was not convicted”. While this is true, it is only part of the truth. He wasn’t convicted YET. The verdict was postponed in order to let the judges the chance to consider the insanity claim. In such a sensitive case, I think it is more than OK if the judges try to be “holier than the pope” and don’t dismiss evidence due to technicalities.
In short, being less one sided would have done much better service to your just cause
@ Baruch: Of course it is true. There are scores of Israeli Jewish mass murderers. I consider any Israeli soldier or commanding officer responsible for murdering Palestinian civilians to participate in mass slaughter and war crimes (I also acknowledge that some Palestinians deserve their day in court as well). 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in violence since 1948, most of them civilians. This is murder no less than when Natan Zada did. Not to mention the other settler murderers who committed mass murder, but not under official orders to do so (Avi Popper, Weissgan, Goldstein, etc.).
Regarding the Abu Khdeir incident, you apparently didn’t read the news coverage which said the trial was thrown into a tumult by the defense cheap tactic of introducing the psychiatric evaluation at the last minute & totally contrary to established trial procedure. This was a cheap trick which the judges should never have permitted.
So yes, it’s perfectly reasonable to say he was not convicted because he could, & should have been already. The news coverage also notes that if the judges accept the petition from the defense it would involve an entirely new trial. That would delay any form of justice for many more months & could lead to charges against him being dropped if he’s found mentally ill.
I become very, very suspicious when different commenters argue the same pts in virtually the same words. You have offered the same argument about the trial of the Abu Khdeir murderers, which means either you are the same person, or you are part of a group that is told what to say when you come here. Either way, I put you on notice that I smell a rat. Read closely other commenters in whatever post thread you visit. If someone has offered the same argument earlier DO NOT repeat it. It just means that I have to offer the same rebuttal to you that I offered them. That is highly annoying and will lead to repeat offenders being moderated.
I don’t need any advice from you about how to do better service to my cause. I understand “my cause” far better than you do.
Hi Richard,
Well let me relate to your points:
1. Putting in the same pot deaths caused in the middle of fighting and murders committed on purpose and in a perfectly quite surrounding – seems to me kind of wrong. The examples you’ve brought up (Avi Popper, Weissgan, Goldstein) are spread over span of more than 20 years, and you won’t find many more examples. I don’t relate to the question of how legitimate it is to call IDF soldiers “mass murederers”. This is a different subject.
2. I agree the defendant has used a cheap trick. Obviously, IF the evaluation will be accepted it will have consequences on the trial. But why to bash the Israeli judicial system on things it didn’t do? The sentencing was postponed. It’s ok you don’t like, but you and I don’t know what will be the sentence at the end. BTW, Popper (from the previous point) is already 25 years in prison
3. I am not part of any group, and this was my first post on any of your articles. In fact, I saw the comment of “The G” only now, as it took some time between reading this article and posting my comment. After all, I have also to work… 🙂
4. I don’t claim to understand your cause better than you. I do think it is ok to give you some feedback, after all, this is the whole idea of comments, no?
Cheers,
Baruch
[comment deleted: Algemeiner is a hasbara shamatteh and prohibited here as a credible source. Your cheap, crude Arabophobic propaganda falls far short of what is acceptable in the comment threads here. Until you read the comment rules & respect them, any future attempts at commenting will be moderated & only approved if they follow these rules.]