Dadon family
Dadon familyFlash 90

A cousin of murdered Afula teen Shelly Dadon accused the Israel Police Sunday of purposly hushing up the terrorist motivation behind the murder, in order to avoid arousing Jewish anger. The Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) appears to believe that the motive for the murder is nationalistic, but police are saying that they are not sure of this.

The murderer reportedly claimed in his interrogation that Danon “cursed” him in the taxicab, and that this was why he murdered her.

Speaking on Voice of Israel public radio, a cousin of Shelly Dadon, Asaf Dadon, said that the claim that Shelly had “cursed” was ludicrous, and that Shelly was “a pure soul” who never looked down on another person. The trip to Migdal Haemek was her first foray outside of her home town of Afula, he said.

"We are under a gag order and we still cannot say how many times he stabbed her and what he did to her body afterward,” the cousin noted.

The cousin blasted the Israel Police and the justice establishment for what he said was an an attempt to whitewash the terrorist or nationalistic aspect of the murder because the murderer has turned out to be an Israeli citizen, and because it fears that Jewish nationalistic anger will now be directed towards Israeli Arabs.

"Our justice system is stupid,” he accused, “but the public is not. We know exactly why Shelly was murdered.”

The Dadon family also suspects that police timed the release of details about Shelly's murderer to coincide with the publication of details about the murder of an Arab teen in Jerusalem, so as to create a public sense that the two events somehow balance each other out.

According to Maariv-NRG, police extended the gag order on the case only three days ago, and never informed the family that they were about to release details to reporters on Sunday.

"No official element has approached us yet and all we know is rom the media,” said Assaf Dadon. “We do not understand why this timing was chosen.”