Thousands of people raised over a million shekels this week in a fundraising program to better prison conditions or even win the release of Amiram Ben Oliel who murdered a Palestinian family in 2015.

The fundraiser was started on Tuesday and ended on Thursday after 14 MKs signed a petition last week demanding better conditions for Ben Oliel.

After musician Ariel Zilber supported the fundraiser, fellow artists Shalom Hanoch and Aviv Gefen canceled their participation in a concert in honor of Zilber’s 80th birthday.

Among others endorsing the project are numerous rabbis and political figures including Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har Melech who has been vocal in her support of Ben Oliel and Likud MKs Amit Halevi, Ariel Kallner, Avichai Buaron, and Nissim Vaturi.

Earlier this week, Son Har Melech took part in a conference in support of Ben Oliel where she called him “righteous and holy”. After facing criticism for the statement, she defended herself in a Twitter post.

Amiram Ben-Oliel, charged with racially-motivated murder for the arson attack on the Dawabsha family home in Duma‏ (credit: Courtesy)
Amiram Ben-Oliel, charged with racially-motivated murder for the arson attack on the Dawabsha family home in Duma‏ (credit: Courtesy)
“Yes, I believe that Amiram Ben Oliel is innocent, and his confession was taken from him with torture that no one could withstand,” she wrote.

Fellow party member Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu echoed a similar sentiment on Thursday.

“Every murderer, no matter his religion or national identity, must be punished to the fullest,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, in the case of Ben Oliel, there are serious doubts as to the correct identification. The feeling of many, including mine, is that there is serious concern that the Duma murderer is walking free. A torture-based confession is not usable evidence, and as we saw in the case of [Roman] Zadorov, you can teach a suspect to ‘reconstruct’ secret details.”

Broad condemnation for support of Ben Oliel

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who initially represented Ben Oliel after his arrest, has also been working to improve his conditions in prison, Ben-Gvir’s wife Ayala said on Wednesday.

Son Har Melech’s comments were condemned from both within the coalition and from members of the opposition.

“I’m very saddened by MK Son Har Melech’s words,” said Health and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel in response. “The duty to ensure the rights of arrested people in interrogation doesn’t mean turning them into righteous and holy people. In the Jewish state, every child memorizes early on in their childhood the Ten Commandments including the sixth commandment, ‘thou shalt not kill’, which forbids in any way taking another life.”

“MK Son Har Melech’s statement on Amiram Ben Oliel is not a moral statement, and I deeply disapprove of it,” said Likud MK Dan Illouz.

Meanwhile, Ta'al MK Ahmad Tibi called Son Har Melech a neo-Nazi and said that "she needs to buy a brown uniform."

Hadash MK Ayman Odeh criticized the coalition in a Knesset discussion on Tuesday on crime in the Arab sector, saying it was disgraceful that as many as 14 coalition MKs signed the petition while only four showed up to an emergency meeting on the rising murder rates in the Arab sector.

“The hateful murderer Amiram Ben Oliel reconstructed hidden details at the scene that weren’t known previously,” said Labor MK Naama Lazimi. “That hateful murderer, who is a big stain on this place, was a tragedy and a disaster to the people of Israel, and it’s no less of a tragedy and a disaster that members of Israel’s government justify the murder and defend the murderer.”

On July 30, 2015, Ben Oliel threw Molotov cocktails into two homes. One was empty, but in the other, Saad and Raham Dawabshe and their sons Ali and Ahmad were sleeping. The resulting fire killed Ali instantly, and Saad and Raham died days later of their wounds. Ahmad, who was also wounded, survived.
Ben Oliel was arrested in December of the same year for the crime and was charged with three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of arson, one count of involvement in a racially-motivated crime, and being part of a terrorist organization. He was found not guilty of the last charge but was convicted of the rest.

In an appeal to the High Court of Justice, Ben Oliel’s representation claimed he was wrongfully convicted because he confessed as a result of torture and that hadn’t intended on murdering anyone.

The court denied the appeal on the basis that Ben Oliel had confessed on at least five occasions, three of which were not under duress; he reconstructed the crime almost perfectly, even telling the investigators details they had not previously known; and that he knew the Dawabshes were in the house when he threw in the explosive.
Hours before the fundraiser for Ben Oliel was to end, former Labor MK Yaya Fink set up a counter fundraiser for the Dawabshe family titled “Justice for the Dawabshe Family, Not the Murderer” and within the first couple of hours it raised almost NIS 50,000.