The Deep State behavior of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Department has been exposed. Just days ago, Ayala Hasson of Israeli elevision Channel 11 (KAN) released a recording in which the head of the Department for Counter-intelligence and Prevention of Subversion in the Jewish Sector could be heard bragging to Israel Police Superintendent Avishai Moalem of the Judea and Samaria police unit: “We arrest these shmucks even without evidence, for a few days. Throw them in the detention cells with the mice.”
To his everlasting credit, Moalem refused to comply.
Avi Abelow, addressing the issue in these pages, referred to the incident as “a window into the dark soul of a rogue system. A system that sees religious Jews of Judea and Samaria as enemies of the state.”
“For years,” wrote Abelow, “many of us warned about the political weaponization of Israel’s intelligence services, particularly the Shin Bet’s... Jewish Department. For years, we were called conspiracy theorists, extremists, or worse.”
While I have known for years, I felt powerless to effect any change in the situation. I was a passionate Zionist. When I made aliyah 20 years ago, it was with the firm belief that the State of Israel acted for the people of Israel. What I learned was like a blow to the solar plexus.
It was the case of Amiram Ben-Uliel that opened my eyes. Ben-Uliel is not “just” religious. He was affiliated with a fringe group associated with the Breslov hassidim; he wears a large white kippah, and his peyot [sidecurls] hang down past his shoulders. However, being an outsider to normative Jewish communities does not make him an arsonist and murderer, though it appears to have contributed toward him being suspect. Or perhaps I should say, it made it easier to level charges against him.
In 2015, a firebomb thrown at a home in the Arab village of Duma caused a fire in which three members of the Dawabsheh family died: a toddler and his parents. In 2020, Ben-Uliel was found guilty of their murder and convicted to three life sentences plus 17 years. An appeal for re-trial was subsequently denied.
When the case came to my attention early in its unfolding, I identified a number of factors that raised my suspicions about Ben-Uliel’s guilt:
The Dawabsheh home was in the center of the village. Why, I asked myself, would a visibly identifiable Jew have gone the distance into the village and risked being seen in order to attack an Arab house, rather than firebombing a house at the village’s periphery? (He was not accused of intention to murder that particular family.) There was Hebrew writing on a wall near the house, but a handwriting expert determined it had been written by someone whose first language was Arabic.
And there was more.
Perhaps most significantly, there had been a feud in the village between segments of the Dawabsheh clan; other houses in the village had been set on fire. Yet the Shin Bet focused on interrogating Jewish suspects. Arab members of that clan were not brought in for serious interrogation.
Focusing on Jews was more politically correct
It appeared that focusing on Jewish suspects was more politically correct and, regrettably, more comfortable for the Shin Bet than accusing Arabs of having killed other Arabs within their clan. The Shin Bet had to identify someone as the perpetrator. With three innocent Arabs in a family dead, the case could not be left unsolved. Accusing an Arab would have created a furor, certainly on the Left. Identifying an outlier Jew as the suspect was more readily acceptable.
The conviction was founded on a confession by Ben-Uliel. What was stunning was the fact that this confession had been secured via torture, which is illegal. The Lod District Court threw out segments of his confession for that very reason. But one portion of the confession, involving a reenactment of the crime, was allowed to stand. Why? Because some days had elapsed between the torture and the reenactment. It was not as if Ben-Uliel had cried, “Stop, stop, I cannot stand it. I admit it!”
However, this reasoning is faulty. The effects of torture can linger far longer than days. What is more, Ben-Uliel had been cautioned by his interrogators that if he did not cooperate, worse awaited him.
Here I go on record, convinced that this case represents a serious miscarriage of justice.
Not everyone will agree. But it is sufficient to recognize that there might have been a miscarriage of justice – both with regard to the failure of the Shin Bet to seriously investigate Dawabsheh clan members, and, most horrendously, the torture of Ben-Uliel.
With the exposure of the Shin Bet Jewish Department, the time is right for seeking justice for Amiram Ben-Uliel. Voices must be raised on his behalf, and those in a position to make a difference must lobby for a re-trial.
The writer is an author and investigative journalist. She blogs at http://arlenefromisrael.info.