Jewish terrorists want to overthrow Israel – Shin Bet
The extremists have moved from graffiti to arson: here the remains of the Christian Church of Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes, set alight in June 2015. Photo from Meir Vaknin, Firefighting and Rescue Office, North County
Articles from Ma’an, Times of Israel and Israel Hayom, the free newspaper created and funded by Sheldon Adelson to support PM Netanyahu.
Shin Bet: Jewish terrorists seek to ‘violently overthrow’ government
Ma’an news
December 18, 2015
BETHLEHEM — Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet on Thursday cautioned that a Jewish terror organization is seeking to “violently overthrow” the Israeli government, Israeli media reported.
Israeli media across the board described the public statement issued by the security agency as a rare response to actors who have slandered the Shin Bet in a campaign to defend Jewish extremists responsible for a fatal arson attack on a Palestinian home last summer.
Suspects belonging to a Jewish terror organization on July 31 set the home of the Dawabsha family ablaze, killing an 18-month-old immediately. The infant’s parent’s later died from severe burns.
“A Jewish terror organization has been under investigation recently, whose activity is suspected to include serious terror attacks that endangered life and harmed religious sanctity and property,” the Shin Bet statement said, according to Israeli media.
“This organization adheres to an extreme, anti-Zionist ideology, that has set itself the goal of violently overthrowing the Israeli government,” the Shin Bet continued.
“The terror attacks that are suspected to have been carried out by the organization led to, among other things, the murder of three innocent Palestinians. This contributed to instability in the region and worsened the security situation,” the agency added.
Despite the threat the terror organization has posed to both Palestinian and Israeli sides, the Shin Bet said that several actors have been working to prevent progress by the agency in its investigations of the group.
“To our regret, since the arrests the Shin Bet has identified a proactive and ongoing effort to slander the organization and its work, and to disrupt its activities.
“This attempt deserves full condemnation and will not deter the Shin Bet from continuing its work as envoys of citizens of the State of Israel, in line with national values,” the agency said.
The Shin Bet statement came hours after lawyers representing the suspects held a press conference accusing the agency of using methods of torture during interrogation.
Concerns among the Israeli public as well as the international community of the rising influence of extremists on policies of the Israeli government have been voiced repeatedly in past months.
PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi on Wednesday denounced Israel’s failure to prosecute the suspects responsible for the Dawabsha arson attack as effectively condoning violent behavior of Israeli settlers.
“When it comes to Jewish criminality or terrorism against Palestinian victims, the legal system in Israel seems to fall apart,” the PLO official said in a statement.
While the Israeli leadership at the time condemned the Dawabsha attack as “terrorism” and pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice, Israeli rights group B’Tselem slammed the reaction as “empty rhetoric.”
“Official condemnations of this attack are empty rhetoric as long as politicians continue their policy of avoiding enforcement of the law on Israelis who harm Palestinians, and do not deal with the public climate and the incitement which serve as backdrop to these acts,” the group said at the time.
Contention over Israel’s failure to bring the perpetrators of last summer’s terrorist attack to justice meanwhile continues to contribute to ongoing tension in the occupied Palestinian territory.
In rare move, Shin Bet lashes out at Jewish terror groups
Extremists’ attorneys had accused security service of torture; agency admits ‘intensive’ interrogation as it seeks to crack Duma murder case
By Judah Ari Gross, Times of Israel
December 17, 2015
The usually taciturn Shin Bet security service lashed out against Jewish terror organizations on Thursday, saying the groups display an “extremist, anti-Zionist ideology” and bear part of the responsibility for the current unrest in Israel and the West Bank.
In recent weeks, the Shin Bet and police have arrested a number of far-right Jewish Israelis believed to be members of one such extremist Jewish group, under the suspicion that they carried out “grave terror attacks,” the Shin Bet said in a statement, referring specifically to the killing of three members of the Dawabsha family in a firebombing attack this summer.
“These terror attacks, which are suspected of having been carried out by the organization, led to the murder of three innocent Palestinians, which destabilized the area and negatively influenced the security situation,” the Shin Bet said.
Eighteen-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha and his parents were killed in the firebombing of their home in the Palestinian village of Duma on July 31, 2015. The couple’s then-four-year-old son was the sole survivor from his immediate family.
A Star of David and the words “revenge” and “long live the messiah” were spray-painted on a wall near the family’s small house.
Since the deadly attack, Palestinians have often highlighted the firebombing and lack of progress in the case as one of the causes of the ongoing wave of knife, gun and car-ramming terror attacks targeting Israelis that has swept through the country since mid-September.
The Shin Bet accused the Jewish suspects of using “violent means to bring about a change in the government in the State of Israel.”
Earlier in the day, the suspects’ attorneys accused the Shin Bet of “outrageous physical violence” against their clients.
“The Shin Bet investigators are allowing themselves to abuse and strike the youth. I understand that the investigators want to arrive at their goal, but there’s a limit,” the lawyers, all from the Honenu organization, which principally handles cases of Israelis accused of nationalistic crimes, said during a press conference.
The Shin Bet, however, claimed in a statement that the suspects were not tortured, but were rather “interrogated in an intensive way with regards to the suspicions against them.”
The far-right groups, which often do not recognize the authority of the Israeli government and army, have been blamed for both serious violence, like the Dawabsha killings, and vandalism against Palestinians, Christian holy sites and Israeli military property.
News broke earlier this month about the arrests of several Jewish extremists, following widespread rumors of a “dramatic development” in a major case, though most of the information related to the case, including the identities of the suspects, remains under an official gag order.
This week, Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon told Army Radio that security services knew who carried out the Duma attack, “but we do not have enough proof yet to try them.”
Right-wing figures have come out harshly against the Shin Bet and other legal authorities for their investigation.
Jewish Home party Knesset member Betzalel Smotrich denied that the murder of the three Dawabsha family members was a terror attack, saying in a newspaper column that attacks by Jewish youths were “serious crimes,” which may be nationalistically motivated, but should not be equated with attacks by Palestinians.
Apparently referring to the Duma investigation, the ultra-conservative lawmaker further claimed the Shin Bet had “crossed all red lines.” Smotrich appeared to break a gag order on the probe, referring to specific suspects who had been taken in for questioning.
The leader of the anti-Arab Lehava organization, Bentzi Gopstein, denounced the Shin Bet in a tweet for “the harsh tortures” to which suspects in the case were subjected. Gopstein also broke the gag order, revealing the age of one of the suspects.
“We are sending a message to these youth that they are the enemy. What a shame, it will only lead to difficult things, unfortunately. Someone mature and responsible is needed to calm down the Shin Bet,” he wrote.
Those condemnations of the Shin Bet, from both official figures like Smotrich and fringe radicals like Gopstein, did not go unnoticed by the security service.
“Unfortunately, since carrying out the arrests, the Shin Bet has recognized a proactive and ongoing effort whose goal is to slander the agency and its workers, and disrupt our operational activities,” the security service said Thursday.
“This attempt deserves all manner of condemnation and will not weaken the hands of the Shin Bet going forward in its actions, as it fights for the citizens of Israel under our national values,” the Shin Bet said.
A protester holds a sign reading “Fight terrorism, not Jews” during Thursday’s [December 18th] rally which nobody else seems to have noticed. Place and numbers not given.. Photo by Miri Tzahi
Shin Bet slams efforts to malign it over Jewish terrorists’ arrests
Security agency issues unusual statement in response to claims that suspects in the Duma terrorist arson attack were tortured during questioning. “All Shin Bet operations, including its interrogations, follow the letter of the law,” it says.
By Efrat Forsher, Gideon Allon and Lilach Shoval, Israel Hayom
December 18, 2015
The Shin Bet security agency on Thursday issued an unusual statement to the press, criticizing what it called Jewish extremists’ efforts to discredit it by claiming that the suspects in the Duma terrorist arson attack were being tortured.
“Unfortunately, since arrests have been made in this case, the Shin Bet has recognized an orchestrated, prolonged effort to malign the agency and its officials, and disrupt its operations,” the statement said. “Recently, a Jewish terrorist organization, whose members are suspected of carrying out grave terrorist attacks, has been under investigation. This organization promotes a radical ideology, with the purpose of using violence to change the government in Israel. All Shin Bet operations, including interrogations, follow the letter of the law and are subjected to strict supervision.”
Attorneys Adi Keidar, David Halevy, Itamar Ben Gvir and Avihai Hajbi claimed Thursday that their clients have not admitted any wrongdoing.
Keidar said that upon meeting with his client, for the first time in three weeks, “I was appalled to learn that senior Shin Bet officials subjected them to severe methods of torture and shocking physical violence, the likes of which is unheard of in Israel, certainly not where minors are concerned, and certainly not under these circumstances.”
Dozens of right-wing activists stages a protest rally in Jerusalem demanding that the claimed abuse of the suspects cease. Protesters carried signs reading, “Fight terrorism, not Jews,” “Stop hurting our children,” “Jewish detainees have rights,” and “We stand with the heroes.”
Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman MK Nissan Slomiansky (Habayit Hayehudi) accused the Shin Bet of exceeding interrogation guidelines outlined under the law. He told Israel Hayom Thursday he “won’t allow” any infringement by Shin Bet interrogators.