Ben Uliel is innocent. He had no connection to the Duma Firebombing in 2015, I trust I have already convinced the reader in a previous article, that he did not receive an impartial trial. Some will disagree, using slogans broadcast over megaphones, but never a word about evidence or justice.
From the very beginning, Ben Uliel’s lawyer, Attorney Yoram Sheftel, had realized, in dismay, that Amiram would not be granted a just outcome. He compared the treatment Amiram was receiving to the conduct of the prosecutors toward his former client, John Demjanjuk. Demjanjuk was believed to be the infamous gas chamber foreman at the Treblinka concentration camp, known to prisoners as "Ivan the Terrible." In 1986, he was extradited to Israel, where he was tried and convicted. The Israeli Supreme Court found that “reasonable doubt existed“ as to whether Demjanjuk was the same man so he was released and returned to the United States.
Demjanjuk was accused of killing 900,000 people, mainly Jews, in various death camps. Nevertheless, he was afforded the basic human rights that every accused deserves.
Not so for Ben Uliel!
Sheftel explained: “The court refused to order the Prison Service to allow us [Ben Uliel’s defense team] to meet with the defendant as every attorney meets with every client for the purpose of preparation prior to the trial and during the trial. The justification was that in terror cases there is no direct discussion, only by telephone and through a glass partition ... it was obvious to me that there was no possibility that a court such as this [the Central District Court in Lod], would exonerate Ben Uliel, despite the fact that his confession was extracted by means of barbaric torture of which the court was aware even before the trial began.”
As a result, Sheftel and the Honenu Attorney Yitzhak Bam, decided to leave the case. Sheftel explained:
“My participation in this case, which has been toxic from the start, gives kosher certification to the proceedings, and therefore I did not agree, under any circumstances, to continue representing him [Ben Uliel].”
In 2019 an Arab, Mahmoud Qadusa was accused of raping a 7-year-old girl in Modin, Illit. He was released after fifty-five days with the following declaration: “The evidentiary infrastructure which underlies the indictment does not at this time amount to a ‘reasonable chance of conviction.’ Therefore, by law, the criminal process cannot continue, the indictment must be withdrawn and Qadusa released from custody.’’
Roman Zadorov had argued that he was innocent. Zadorov was convicted of the 2006 murder of 13-year-old Tair Rada, and was only acquitted last year. The retrial was announced 11 years after his conviction. The 2-1 decision was not based on new evidence but on whether his confession was genuine and other matters that cast some “reasonable doubt“ over the nature of the investigation and its findings.
"The confession, which was supposedly authentic, was nothing more than a hollow declaration," one judge wrote in the majority opinion. "The vast majority of the evidence turned out to be lacking any substantive significance“, the judge continued. “The ruling also noted that his conduct was not commensurate with that of a “sophisticated“ murder and that the crime scene did not match the depiction of the charges against him”.
One may ask, if so why was he originally convicted and held for years? Was it prejudice or blackmail?
I have already listed the many crimes that were committed by the authorities to convict Ben Uliel in the article: “The Many Crimes in the Duma Affair” - Israel National News - March 7, 2022. Dr. Martin Sherman has also written approximately a dozen articles proving that Amiram Ben Uliel could not have committed this crime.
I wish now to list the evidence, not to convict Amiram, there is no such evidence, but instead, the evidence that could have been used to release Ben Uliel due to the existence of “reasonable doubt“ at various stages of the judicial process.
One should have expected that the Jewish Division of the Shabak would have investigated the possibility that the arson was part of the continuing, deep-rooted feud between Dawabshe cousins, since almost everyone in Kfar Duma was well aware of the bad blood. There had already been 6 arson attacks and just 29 days after the July 31st crime there was another firebombing, and once again, the Shabak did not investigate. These obvious facts were summarily rejected since they did not support the decades-long obsession that religious Jewish terrorists existed, and here was the proof.
The court met again 5 years later, and in the interim, more attacks were reported in Kfar Duma, but no attempt was made to check the evidence that could have exonerated Ben Uliel. Additionally, many have asked the obvious question; Why would a Jew take a dangerous and unnecessarily circuitous route to the center of the village, to commit this firebombing, passing many houses available on the outskirts? Some crucial information would help to make some sense at this juncture.
The Jewish Division of the Shabak had some outstanding issues to resolve with Jewish settlers. Many of those interrogated had maintained their silence, withstanding weeks of torture and consequently they had to be released. Similarly, only five years earlier in 2010, Chaim Perlman was framed for murdering Arabs but was found not guilty and released after embarrassing the Shabak in the media. Check out that case: 'GSS Won't Leave Chaim Alone' and also The Chaim Perlman Saga. They tell the fascinatiing story of the dry run that led directly to the Duma Affair.
“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted.” Author Frantz Fanon
Contradictory Statements On 8 September 2015, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer announced, that Israel "know[s] unequivocally that this is an act of Jewish terror."
The next day, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon issued a statement that said "there is a high probability that those responsible for the attack in Duma are part of a very extreme group of Jews "but that there is not yet enough evidence to arrest any suspects. Ya'alon also told a group of Likud activists that the identities of the arsonists are known to the defense establishment but that charges would not yet be brought to protect the identity of their sources. Later, Ya'alon clarified that security forces have only a "general idea" of who is responsible for the deadly firebombing attack.
Confirming again that the attack was "clearly a Jewish" one, and that he knew "who is responsible", Moshe Ya'alon said that there is "not enough evidence" to detain or prosecute the suspects.
On 3 December 2015, it was cleared for publication that a number of Jewish suspects had been arrested. Arab rights groups, compared the swiftness of Israeli actions against Arab suspects when Jews were targeted. The UN envoy criticized the "slow progress" in Israel's investigation and accused the Israeli government of condoning settler violence.
It soon became widely known that the suspects were subjected to harsh interrogation methods when the investigation reached an embarrassing situation and all the suspects were released. Consequently, Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein approved the use of unremitting torture, for the next interrogation, strictly reserved by law for “Ticking Bomb Scenarios”. This was guaranteed to achieve its objective; to obtain a confession to have committed the crime, although everyone knew that there was no ticking bomb and therefore the torture was illegal both in Israel and internationally.
On 3 January 2016, 21-year-old Amiram Ben Uliel, married and a father of a recently born daughter was charged with murder, and a minor was charged as an accessory.
Alibi Amiram Ben Uliel had an alibi to prove he was at home the whole night of the arson attack and babysat his infant daughter while his wife had an early morning driving assignment. No attempt was made to check if this was true and could be relied on to exonerate Amiram. It might have acquitted the accused, and it was ignored.
Graffiti Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu claimed; "only someone who lacks knowledge in the nuances of the religious community would make such a mistake and assume that "Tag Mechir" activists would daub "Yechi Hamelech Hamashiach" ("Long live King Messiah"), a known maxim of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.“ It was probably copied without the graffiti artist even knowing that it was absurd. It was clearly daubed by a non-Jew or a secular Israeli to libel settlers for the crime, as Rabbi Eliyahu stated; "The way of terror is not our way".
The psychologist and graphologist Dr. Batya Cohen-Kroyturo was invited to study the graffiti and be a witness for the defense. She testified that the writing was not the work of Ben Uliel and it was done by two different persons. Cohen-Kroyturo detailed the characteristics that she examined: the size of the writing, the angle of writing, beginnings and endings, length differences, width and form of writing, line thickness, the tilt of the writing, and more. According to her examination, there was a complete lack of similarity between the graffiti and the handwriting of Ben Uliel, and between one graffiti inscription and the other. Even an amateur observer would notice that the style was not typically Hebrew.
These findings contradicted the indictment, in which it is claimed that Ben Uliel was alone in the village of Duma on the night of the arson, and he wrote the two graffiti inscriptions. This contradiction should have been enough to raise a “reasonable doubt” in the minds of the judges about whether Amiram was or was not the arsonist. Yet it failed to convince the judges who had been chosen to find him guilty no matter what evidence the witnesses might present.
Re-enactment of a crime is designed to prove that the accused is, or he is not, the guilty party, therefore strict rules were established. For example the person chosen to accompany the accused must have minimal knowledge of the facts. He must let the accused lead the way from beginning to end. These regulations were designed to protect the innocent, but not Ben Uliel.
His torturers accompanied him to make sure he would not contradict the carefully prepared false confession by losing his way in a place that was not familiar to him. The judges also had to believe that the re-enactment was done according to the rules and that Amiram had fully recovered from the trauma of the torture he had experienced just 30 hours before. The judges were also required to ignore the fact that the video of the re-enactment was not complete, 18 key minutes are missing in which time Ben Uliel appears to have changed from being a non-cooperative accused to a cooperative convict repeating exactly what he had been told to confess. The judges were amazed by the exact accuracy of Ben Uliel’s repeated confession, that it may have been rehearsed to impress the judges was never even contemplated.
Witness is too young The survivor of the arson Ibrahim Dawabshe who witnessed the murder of his mother, father, and brother, was ready to testify that there were three arsonists involved. His testimony would have contradicted the official narrative, so he too was rejected as a witness. They used the lame excuse that he was too young to remember and describe events involving his parents murder.
Conviction and sentence In May 2020, Amiram Ben Uliel was convicted by the Lod District Court of three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of arson, as part of a "terrorist act". However, he was acquitted of charges of membership in a terror organization.
In September 2020, Ben Uliel was sentenced to three life terms for murder, 17 years for attempted murder, and 10 years for arson. The minor who had been convicted of membership of a terrorist organization and involvement in planning the murders was sentenced to 42 months imprisonment and considered to have already served 32 months.
Psychological Operations or PsyOps consist of specialized groups designed to manipulate public opinion. They are political "spin doctors" who put a “spin” on media events to show that the government’s agenda benefits the state and its people. This allows citizens to support government actions even if they are illegal.
If a “happening” is insufficient to meet their objective they are prepared to create their own “event”. Special agents known as “provocateurs” are trained to blend into a crowd, dress the part required, and show up at carefully coordinated times with a camera crew to create the “media event”.
These actions of the secret services and their activities are obviously strictly confidential. Yet once in the past, Israeli Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein hinted at their scope when he tried to suppress documents attesting to Avishai Raviv’s role as a government-paid agent provocateur against its citizens. Rubinstein said if the public knew [the truth about the Government's actions] it would be a grave danger to public security, faith in the government, and public order.
This short introduction explains why two PsyOps events were required by the authorities to deflect accusations of unnecessary violence, reportedly used on innocent citizens.
With no evidence to allege a crime, the authorities chose to portray the accused as obnoxious “outlaws.” They grew up in “the heart of the settlement movement, the byproduct of its educational system.” The authorities also choreographed two despicable PsyOP events to prove this fact and guarantee an appropriate response from the citizenry and politicians alike; "The Wedding of Hate" and the “Taunting of the Grandfather and Relatives of the Murder Victims”.
In the video of a Jewish wedding that was deliberately created and distributed, ”Guests” are supposed to be stabbing a photo mounted on a stick of Ali Dawabsheh, the toddler who had died in the Duma arson attack. Little can be understood from the video itself, but by using voice-over explanations, high-lighting and even stills, the creators of this video made absolutely sure anyone watching understands the important purpose of the video. It was successful in that it caused an avalanche of hate against the community which appears in the video to be evil, and “obviously” are all “celebrating” the murder of the toddler Ali Dawabshe and not the marriage of a young couple.
In a second PsyOps event Hussein Dawabsheh, the grandfather of the same toddler, was “obviously” being taunted by “Jewish Settlers” outside the courthouse where proceedings were taking place. It was reported that someone chanted in Arabic; "Where's Ali? Ali is burned. Ali is on the grill" and "Where is Ali? It's too bad Ahmed didn't burn as well." Israeli Arab parliamentarian Ahmad Tibi distributed this video capturing the supposed incident. Again it is not clear if anyone said any of these taunts or who might be doing the taunting. The purpose of the video is to show the “outlaws” in a contemptible situation taunting a man who recently lost his family. Then adding political personalities to comment at the end of the video gives it the stamp of approval and truth.
Police and court officials present at the event reportedly did not interfere. Could it be that they were informed that the “Settlers“ were Shabak provocateurs and that they should not interfere with the carefully prepared and coordinated PsyOp? Or were they not witness to the taunting at all because it never happened except in someone’s fertile imagination?
An indictment for alleged incitement to violence was filed against minors who were accused of participating in the taunting. In both these events just described, lawyers for the defense asked to obtain the original videos to check them for fraudulent manipulation of the evidence, and in both cases, the state prosecutors claimed to have lost the original, which is a chronic problem in the prosecutor's offices. Honenu issued a joint statement by the defendants' attorneys, saying, "The loss casts doubt on the ability to prosecute the case."
What connects these two videos? They were both specially edited to defame a community and then “lost”. The Shabak knows from past experience that they can get away with this lame excuse.
Judge Shopping The Supreme Court set the appeal of Ben-Uliel's conviction for March 7, 2022. At the same time, the court also announced that Justice Neal Hendel, who is known to be critical of the collection of confessions by improper means and then using the confession without corroborating evidence, was removed from the panel and will be replaced.
Orian Ben Uliel, Amiram's wife, commented; "It is not for nothing that the prosecutor's office repeatedly asked to postpone the hearing on various pretexts.” Orian continued, "Now, the prosecutor waited for another judge to take Justice Hendel's place because every lawyer knows his position on confessions collected improperly. This is another stage in the system's war against justice to make sure Amiram stays in jail.”
Courts have traditionally had a mix of judges, so that various opinions and ideologies might be represented, but not for Ben Uliel. What we have instead are judges chosen for their secular ideology and prejudice which could not but be biased against Amiram who by his appearance broadcasts his opposing ideology. The judges should therefore have recused themselves because of their conflict of interest.
One of the judges was Yitzhak Amit aka Isaac Goldfreind as he has been referred to in recent media reports.
After well regarded publicist Kalman Liebeskind's series of researched articles accused judges of adjudicating cases with a conflict of interest, can a religious person receive an impartial trial in the Jewish state where Jewish ideas are considered archaic, ancient wisdom and rarely consulted?
Recent developments Prison Service Chief Kobi Yaakobi has been working to improve conditions for Jewish prisoners. Among the “perks” to make Ben Uliel's incarceration equal to other prisoners are; telephone calls with a Rabbi and permission to hold and use holy books. At the end of August, after eight and a half years, Amiram was released from solitary confinement and placed in the religious wing of the prison. These are probably the crimes for which Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi, was recently summoned by the Shabak for questioning.
Kesset member Limor Son Har-Melech stated courageously that Ben-Uliel is an innocent “saint” whose life is one of holiness and piety, and whose suffering in prison is on behalf of all the people of Israel. She has been refuted by specially chosen media personalities.
Why the continuing obsession to discover Jewish Terrorists and to convict Ben Uliel using illegal means whilst John Demanjuk, Mahmoud Qadusa and after 11 years of incarceration, Roman Zadorov, were given the benefit of “a reasonable doubt“, concerning their guilt?
May I suggest that the authorities have been endeavoring to convince the International Criminal Court in the Hague, that Israel has a robust court system and that it can be relied upon to treat Arabs and Jews equally. Even the fact that the Prime Minister himself is not above the law is an important factor that confirms this objective. Therefore there is no need for Israel to be supervised by the ICC.
Since Israelis like most people love to travel and they fear that warrants might be issued for their arrest, hence the obsession to find right-wing and visibly Jewish people, guilty and incarcerated for exaggerated periods. This I believe, is why Amiram Ben Uliel has, for the last decade been treated with more cruelty than any criminal or terrorist in the jails of the Jewish state.
Some are of the opinion that Theodore Herzl was inspired to conceive of a Jewish state when he observed the injustice and corruption of The Dreyfus Affair. He believed, wrongly it seems, that if there was a Jewish state with Jewish prosecutors and judges, Jews would receive justice free of prejudice, and that a Jewish state would be treated with esteem and equality just like any other state. Antisemitism would finally end and become an historic aberration.
When Jews treat each other with humanity, honesty and regard we might conceive of the possibility of Herzl’s dream becoming the reality and the unending difficulties Jews are currently experiencing may come to a victorious end.
The recent revelations of the Shabak's expressed mistreatment of Jews living in Judea and Samaria are a good reason to reopen the Duma file.