Horror! Israeli suspects treated a bit like Palestinians!
A day after Al Monitor’s report [1] Richard Silverstein reports arrests, gag orders and suspects’ names [2]
The funeral last September of Reham Dawabsheh, the mother of infant Ali, the first of the family to die from burns caused by an arson attack. His father died next next, then his mother. A second son is still alive but in hospital with severe burns.
What took Israel so long to arrest Douma murder suspects?
After four months of investigation, suspects in the murder of the Dawabsha family were apprehended — but will they be convicted?
By Shlomi Eldar,trans. Simon Pompan, Al Monitor
December 08, 2015
The gag order relating to the arrest of radical right-wing activists suspected of belonging to a Jewish terrorist cell and committing terror attacks was partially lifted on Dec. 3. Among other things, the detainees are suspected of having perpetrated the attack in the village of Douma on July 31, setting the Dawabsha house on fire and killing three family members — mother, Reham; father, Saed; and Ali, their 18-month-old baby. Only Ahmed, 5, survived. Although his life is not in danger, he is still hospitalized at Tel Hashomer Hospital in central Israel with serious burns all over his body.
The Israeli defence establishment is convinced that the terror attack in Douma was one of the triggers that unleashed the intifada that has been raging in Israel since the beginning of October. But the brutal murder of the Dawabsha family was not the catalyst that precipitated the escalation, but rather the fact that the perpetrators of that attack had not been captured for weeks on end. This stands in stark contrast to the efficiency and effectiveness of Israel’s General Security Service, the Shin Bet, in apprehending Palestinian terrorists.
In recent months, charges were made in the Palestinian Authority (PA) that, due to political reasons, Israel was in no hurry to nab the perpetrators of the Douma attack. A statement by Defence Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon Sept. 10 to the effect that the defence establishment was aware of the identity of the perpetrators of the attack but could not disclose that information in order not to reveal its sources further boosted the rumour mill concerning Israel’s ineptness in capturing the perpetrators.
Now — some four months later — it has been reported that the Shin Bet has arrested several people suspected of being implicated in that arson attack. The gag order was (partially) lifted due to petitions from Israeli news outlets as well as a myriad of rumours that flooded social media. Identifying the suspects by name remains prohibited, as is the disclosure of any information about the locality they live in. The laconic information that was released for publication suggests that the Shin Bet apparently still does not have sufficient evidence to bring those suspects to trial. Chai Haber, a lawyer representing one of the suspects, reportedly even thinks that the “clearer the picture becomes, the more it will be understood that the statements from the authorities on progress being made in any of those investigations have no leg to stand on.”
Representing another suspect, attorney Itamar Ben Gvir — himself a radical right-wing activist — lambasted the incarceration conditions, alleging, in declarations to Israeli media, that “little by little [Israel] is turning into Argentina. We’re not allowed to meet with the suspect nor is he present in the court proceedings. The Shin Bet is hiding him in one of its cellars after it became apparent that he was beaten and roughed up during the arrest. This is no way to run a democratic regime.”
Ben Gvir has struck a raw nerve. Comparing the incarceration conditions and interrogation methods between Palestinian and Israeli attackers — which is not unreasonable — reveals a marked difference.
Under the law and in tandem with getting legal advice, the Shin Bet was given the tools for employing harsh interrogation methods, to elicit information and get a confession from a Palestinian detainee suspected of carrying out a terror attack, including putting the detainee under physical and psychological duress and pressuring his family members. When it concerns Palestinian suspects, the term “ticking bomb” is usually used to “launder” the Shin Bet’s demands for such interrogation methods. In other words, everything must be done to thwart attacks and spare innocent lives.
As far as we know, the methods used to interrogate Palestinian terrorists are not applied to the suspects of the “Jewish underground” for the time being. Furthermore, the suspects’ battery of lawyers provides them with a legal umbrella that makes it difficult for the Shin Bet and police investigators to work freely. This gives the suspects a morale boost, which, in turn, is translated into exercising the right to remain silent during investigations.
Additionally, the suspects’ family members plan to stage a demonstration in front of the home of Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (HaBayit HaYehudi) with a demand to improve the suspects’ incarceration conditions and to demand “respect of human rights.”
The mother of one of the suspects said, “My son is a sensitive, sweet, bright kid. He has a great sense of humour and loves nature and the Land of Israel. I believe that he knows we’re here outside, that we love him and believe in his innocence, and that we’re waiting for him to come back home safe and sound.”
Given the partial lifting of the gag order, what can be said at this time is that in the wake of an elaborate and extended intelligence effort in collaboration with the Israeli police, the Shin Bet has a solid foundation to assume that they have caught the perpetrators of the Douma attack. But to bring them to trial, several actions have to be taken, such as gathering additional corroborative evidence. The Shin Bet expects to obtain this evidence by exerting pressure on the detainees in the hope that one of them at least will incriminate the others.
The million-dollar question at hand is whether concrete suspicions and circumstantial evidence, which would have otherwise probably been sufficient to convict a Palestinian terrorist in a military court, will be enough to convict Jewish terrorists in an Israeli civilian court. And there’s another question: Does the Shin Bet have the legal and public backing to keep all the suspects under arrest until the investigation is exhausted? With a Palestinian detainee suspected of terrorist activity, the answer to that question would have undoubtedly been affirmative.
Hussein Dawabsha, Mohammed’s grandfather, this week told Al-Monitor that the arrest of the suspects did not bring him any relief. “Justice should be served and it’s a good thing that suspects were caught,” he said, “but let’s also see that they’re convicted. Why did it take so long to arrest them?”
In his opinion, the arrests won’t bring calm to the ground. “I don’t want to talk politics,” he explained, “but I will say that there are other reasons for the escalation, such as roadblocks or repeated attacks against Palestinians by settlers. The burning of my family may have sparked anger among Palestinians, but it wasn’t just that. Catching the suspects won’t solve everything.”
Touching on his grandson’s condition, he says with great pain: “Mohammed is recovering but he is still not doing well. Every day the [doctors] put him in an induced coma for four hours to wash the burned skin and redress him. The pain is excruciating. He still asks why his mum and dad don’t come to visit him. He doesn’t know they’ve passed away. We haven’t said anything to him about that.”
Then there Were Five: New Settler Murder Accomplice Arrested Under Gag Order
By Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam
December 09, 2015
There’s been a new addition to the settler Murderers Row of suspects in the arson-murders of the Dewabsheh family outside of Nablus. He is Netanel Porkovich, resident of the Kochav Shahar settlement. He is suspected of providing the car the murderers used to carry out the crime. His identity is under Shabak gag order. You may assume that he is not being offered the typically high level of hospitality bestowed on Shabak detainees.
The picture features two of the terror suspects in court. The image was not pixellated by the Israeli TV channel which featured this video. Images of the suspects, as well as their identities, are under gag. If anyone can name each of them, let me know.
Tellingly, this is the same settlement where new Israeli national police chief, Roni Alsheikh, lived before deciding he had a better chance of sbagging the top Shin Bet job if he moved to a home within the Green Line. He also might’ve realized he was snuggling too closely with prospective Shabak terror suspects.
Alsheikh, who was once deputy chief of the Shin Bet and hoped to be promoted to the top job, chose instead to become national police chief. In profiles of Alsheikh in Israeli media, he has been called “messianic,” which seems fitting for an agency being increasingly held hostage to an extremist Israeli nationalist religious outlook.
Rabbi Moshe Odess, father of Jewish terror suspect, Elisha Odess. Both have been arrested by Shabak
In a further development, one of the detainees’ fathers, Rabbi Moshe Odess, has also been arrested by the Shin Bet. It is highly unusual for Israel’s security forces to arrest a rabbi, no matter how extreme. And you may be certain that Rabbi Odess is plenty extreme. One of Israel’s most extreme settler rabbis.
The good rabbi has written not one, but two books telling “Judeans” how to maintain the rites and rituals of the Temple. That’s for the time (may it come soon) when Israel “finally” tears down the idolatrous altar of the usurpers (Al Aqsa) and rebuilds God’s Holy Temple as it should be (irony intended).
With five suspects and a sixth detainee, we have a real Murderers Row of Jewish terror. For those not old enough to remember, the New York Yankees team of the late 1920s, which included Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, was known popularly as Murderers Row, because of its extraordinary slugging prowess. Settlers may now take similar pride in their very own Jewish terror “sluggers.”
This struggle appears part of a psychological contest between the settlers and the Shin Bet, in which the settlers are using their considerable political clout against this aggressive interrogation of the suspects. The Shin Bet appears to be saying the gloves have come off, and the former niceties will no longer be observed. There seems to be stronger will to solve this case than others which have come before.
The settler councils are uniting to exert pressure on their political allies in Knesset to intercede on behalf of their boys. Headlines scream: “Israeli security forces crossing all red lines.” Why are they crossing red lines? Because they’re treating these Jewish terrorists similarly to how they treat Palestinian security prisoners. Not the same, mind you. They’re probably not smashing their balls or exerting other forms of outright torture as they do against Palestinians. But they’re not being very nice. THey’re not permitting them contact with their lawyers. They’re putting other forms of pressure on them. That’s crossing red lines.
These settler validators of Jewish terror haven’t stopped to think about the crime itself. Did the murderers not cross a few red lines? If so, what do they expect? Incarceration and interrogation will be like a day at the beach at Sharm?
Returning to Shabak’s motivation to pursue the case energetically–that is because international figures and bodies, including the United Nations and world leaders, have specifically demanded that Israel solve this case. Further, Israeli-Palestinian and MKs have brought an action before the Supreme Court demanding that the defense minister and Attorney General expend considerably more effort than they have to solve the crime. The security services are willing to be lax in solving Jewish terror crimes, but not at the expense of being made to look like fools. Nor does this mean it will pursue similar cases in the future with anything but the laxity with which it dealt with previous cases of murder of Palestinian victims.
There are rare instances when Shabak is forced to punish Jewish terrorists, almost against its will. This is one of them.