In 2015, the Dawabshe family was murdered in an arson attacked carried out by a seven-member settler terror cell. The father and mother were burned to death along with their 18 month-old baby. Their other child, Ahmad, was spared. Though he had to undergo repeated operations and skin grafts to repair his burns.
At the time, an Israeli security source told me there was a Shin Bet informant within the cell. But he “played” the Shin Bet. He was never charged with the murders because the agency would have to admit he was their informant and that he turned on them. Several other cell members were also not prosecuted. Only two were: the mastermind of the affair, Amiram Ben-Uliel and another who was his accomplice. I broke an Israeli gag order and was the first to report his name.
After Pres. Reuven Rivlin denounced the attack and perpetrators, the father of one of the suspects called him “Der Fuhrer.” Other settlers called for burning more Palestinians alive. Shortly after the murders, a settler wedding featured celebrants pretending to stab a picture of the baby with mock knives (see video). It was ugly: a country transforming before one’s eyes into a terror state.
It is a common protocol for the state prosecution not to charge all participants in such attacks. But rather to choose the most guilty party and let the rest go. This gives the impression that there are only a few bad apples, while the rest of the bushel is filled with good ones. When in reality the entire bushel is rotten. Such a legal procedure would never happen with Palestinian suspects.
Their confessions were allegedly secured by torture. It is a technique used routinely by interrogators against Palestinian security prisoners even though the Supreme Court supposedly outlawed it decades ago. It is rarely used against Jewish terrorists, but it was in this case.
On this basis, the two murderers of the Dawabshe family called a hearing in 2018. They appealed to vacate the confessions. If they were successful, the cases against them, including their sentence, would also likely be vacated. At the conclusion, the judges maintained Ben Uliel’s confessions, but disallowed his accomplices. The legal logic was twisted into knot. The confession of the accomplice followed immediately after he was tortured. Thus the torture was a direct cause of the confession and disallowed. But Ben Uliel’s confession did not follow immediately after torture. Therefore, his was permitted.
The dark irony here is that Palestinian confessions under torture are never disallowed under any circumstances, torture or otherwise. First, they are tried in military courts. Second, they are considered undeserving of the rights accorded to Israeli citizens.
The uncle and grandfather of Ali, the baby who burned to death entered the courtroom to witness the proceedings. When they emerged from the courthouse to join other family members, Judeo-Nazis began taunting the Palestinians chanting (see video above): “Where’s Ali? Ali is dead,” and most disgusting of all, “Ali is on the grill.” No longer can anyone say that these monsters do not represent Israel. That they are outliers. That Israel is better than this. It isn’t.
These killers and their supporters act in the name of a twisted version of Judaism. They are not Jews. They are pagan idolaters. I can’t tell you how many times I have written this phrase. But I can’t repeat it enough. I refuse to permit such monsters to defile my religion. Do not ever blame Jews or Judaism for these foul animals.
Unfortunately, American Jewish leaders, including rabbis have not renounced them. They have not excommunicated them. They have not declared MKs like Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben Givir and scores of other MKs with similar views persona non grata in this country. If they do not, they too become accomplices in the hate the settler-apostates spew. Their refusal to act in a decisive way (rather than in weak platitudes), only serves to confirm this.
The Israeli political leaders who come out of this cesspool now run the government. They are the state. Other ministers will hardly utter a word about it. And even if the prime minister were to do so, his words would be perfunctory and meaningless. If he meant them, he would eject the fascists from the government and go to new elections. But he engineered the political arrangement which brought them into it and his government would fall without them. So both live on a knife’s edge. But ultimately they have less to lose than he does. So they can push harder, do more damage, kill and expel more Palestinians. While he stands by and does little or nothing. In effect, he is their hostage.
Richard,
This is a long debate but when you say that ‘These killers and their supporters act in the name of a twisted version of Judaism. They are not Jews. They are pagan idolaters. ‘ unfortunately this is not true. They are Jews, just like members of Romania’s Iron Guard were Christians when they hung the bodies of Jews on butchers’ hooks.
There is no static religion. All religions depend on their interpretation. Christianity can be lots of warm, liberal mush. It can be radical and shelter refugees or it can be at the vanguard of the pogromists. The same is true of Judaism and indeed any religion. Religions change and the majority Jewish identity today, the majority religious identity is permissive of all the abominations you desc ribe. That is why they are silent.
I agree with you except I am not sure this is about “the majority Jewish identity today”. Maybe.
And maybe too, this behavior is about a sector of fanatics that as a result of transmission, what has been handed down, is showing that primitive hate revenge, retribution and tolerated for being the historical victims. As such these Jews showing this form of righteousness, has not learned the spiritual lesson, but passes on this vicious cycle; they are willing to martyr and be martyred.
This is horrible…horrible
We should not think that Jews are not capable of this after all they are human and humanity has shown its ugly side throughout history. Jews are not exempt.
Blame for this behavior should go, as you intimate, to Jewish political leadership, including the clergy that condones, turns a blind eye, nurtures hate.
I describe the development of today’s Judaism somewhat differently.
Aramaic-language-based Judaism was practiced in Mesopotamia/Babylonia. It was initially an Aramaic-language version of Zoroastrianism but adopted the Hebrew Bible from Palestine around the middle of the Hellenistic period. This community eventually created Rabbinic Judaism.
Judah the Prince and Nathan the Babylonian tried to introduce an early form of this version of Judaism to Palestine during the 3rd century CE in the form of the Mishnah. Before Mishnaic and later Mesopotamian (Babylonian) Talmudic Judaism developed into Rabbinic Judaism, Mesopotamian Judaism was customized to an hydraulic despotism. (See Oriental Despotism by Karl Wittvogel.) This religion was (a) at best irrelevant to the Greco-Roman Palestinian peasantry, (b) probably in many ways exploitative, and (c) possibly even offensive. Rabbinic Judaism, which does not crystallize until the 10th century CE, is a domain specific religion,
[1] which is customized for a pre-modern commercial stratum and
[2] which modernization has (a) almost completely undermined and (b) mostly rendered useless.
The Judean peasantry generally scorned the efforts of Judah the Prince and Nathan the Babylonian.
As everyone in Palestine became Christian, the regional distinctions like Judea, Samaria, Idumea, Galilee, Nabatea, etc. became mostly obsolete, and it made sense to refer to the whole region by the territorial name Palestine. The Saints and Church Fathers of Palestine were routinely called Palestinian.
Modern Palestinian society and culture provided a window onto Greco-Roman Palestine during a period that was critical to human social and religious evolution. By committing genocide on Palestinians and working to eradicate all traces of Palestinians within the territory under Zionist control, Zionists have committed an unpardonable crime against human knowledge. In addition, Zionism has murdered Judaism by transforming Judaism into a program of genocide. The return of the Jews is not a concept of Judaism. The Messiah brings redemption. During the age of redemption, everyone worships the Lord God of Israel. There is no return except possibly the return of the Assyrian Exile, which exists only in sacred space and time but not in secular space and time.
‘ …Do not ever blame Jews or Judaism for these foul animals.
Unfortunately, American Jewish leaders, including rabbis have not renounced them… ‘
We have something like a non-sequitur here. What you would like to be the truth differs from what is the truth.
@ Colin:
I don’t see that as a contradiction. Just because rabbis and communal leaders shirk their moral responsibility does not mean Judaism is at fault for that. Yes, current reality is disappointing. But that’s why I criticize them. Even if they don’t change, I want to be a witness and critic who reminds them of their responsibility.