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Thursday, Feb. 04 '16, Shevat 25, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. NEW DETAILS COME TO LIGHT IN DUMA 'CONFESSION'
2. HADAR COHEN WAS 'LARGER THAN LIFE'
3. STABBING ATTACK IN RAMLE; ONE INJURED
4. LIFE SENTENCE FOR MURDERER OF MOHAMMED ABU KHDEIR
5. LECTURER WHO FALSELY CLAIMED IDF SOLDIERS RAPE ARABS IS SACKED
6. WATCH: STATE DEPT. SPOX LOSES PATIENCE WITH ANTI-ISRAEL REPORTER
7. ISRAEL FACES THIRD YEAR OF DROUGHT, KINNERET RISES ONLY 22 CM
8. WATCH: HASSIDIM WATCH 'FIDDLER ON THE ROOF' FOR THE FIRST TIME
1. NEW DETAILS COME TO LIGHT IN DUMA 'CONFESSION'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Amiram Ben Uliel, the suspect who has been charged with murder in the Duma case, was taken to the Arab village and told to reenact the event to be recorded as part off the evidence in the case.
The Israel Security Agency (ISA) agents and police officers who took Ben Uliel instructed him to point to the location that the events occurred and to reenact for them the arson.
According to an Army Radio report on Thursday, Ben Uliel gave vague answers and asked the officers "don't force me." The reenactment took place on Saturday night, December 20th, just three days after Ben Uliel confessed under extreme physical and emotional pressure and duress that the ISA investigators had applied to all of the suspects.
According to the report, the detectives and ISA personnel took Ben Uliel to Duma and asked him "Where are we going?" Ben Uliel responded, "I have no idea." The detectives told him "just like what we talked about, nothing has changed, where are we going?" Ben Uliel responded and said "I don't know...To Duma."
The detectives said "and what will we see in Duma." Ben Uliel answered and said "houses." "And what happened to those houses in Duma?" said the detective. Ben Uliel offered "they were burned."
The detective then read for Ben Uliel a pre-written document that said "I am prepared of my own free will to point out what happened," and then told Ben Uliel to sign the document.
One of the officers told Ben Uliel to take off his kippah and put a hat on, and to roll up his payot during the search. The officer said "I don't want you to stand out here." Ben Uliel surprised the officers and said "I want to stand out here. Why, what should I be ashamed of?"
According to the report, Ben Uliel wanted the Palestinian residents to know what was happening and who was coming, since they already knew that a reenactment was taking place.
Ben Uliel later on described the events as the ISA believe them to have occurred, including certain facts and information that only the investigators or perpetrator could have known. He described that the bottle of the firebomb was colored green, for example, and he also gave a detailed description of the Dawabshe family's car and house. He mentioned that he stood during the flight from the house after the attack occurred, a detail corroborated by eyewitness accounts, according to the ISA.
Ben Uliel's lawyers claim that the reenactment is unusable as evidence and it was forced out from Ben Uliel under duress. Hai Haber, one of the attorneys on the case, said: "I don't know how the prosecutors will be able to prove that this is a truthful testimony, since it is clear that they were not given of his own free will, but that physical and emotional duress form the basis of these confessions."
2. HADAR COHEN WAS 'LARGER THAN LIFE'
by Cynthia Blank
Hadar Cohen, the 19-year-old Border Police officer killed Wednesday in a shooting and stabbing attack at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, was brought to rest Thursday afternoon at the Yehud military cemetery.
Hundreds attended the funeral, including Ravit Mirilashvili, Hadar's comrade who was also injured in the attack. Earlier on Thursday, she attributed her life to Hadar's heroism.
Cohen's father Ofer recited the Kaddish prayer for his daughter, before eulogizing her: "My beloved Hadar, my dear daughter...who was more beloved to me than anything. How am I supposed to separate from you now, how?"
With grief in his voice, he continued, "everyone says you were a hero, a true hero, that you saved lots of people with your body and soul. But no one truly knows you my Hadar, your warmth. I have three words (in Hebrew - ed.) to tell you: I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you and salute you. Rest in peace, may your soul be entwined in life."
Other family members said at the funeral, "she was a hero and now she is not with us."
"We threw her a party for her enlistment two months ago," recounted Hadar's cousin, Ofri Cohen. "She was a crazy fighter, she said if she wouldn't do it, who would? She always fought and always cared."
"Last week we were with here and she had just finished her oath (to the army)," Cohen continued. "She spoke about how hard hard it was for her but how much effort she made to stay. She was not afraid."
Hadar's cousin said "she always wanted to join the Border Police," noting that "she saved her friend and immediately pulled the trigger. We take comfort in the fact she died heroically."
An aunt, Zehavit Cohen, said, "Hadar was a good girl and stunning. Everything she wanted, she achieved. She longed to join the Border Police and fought to get there. She always said how fun and good it was, even when it was hard."
"I told her, 'Don't worry, you are larger than life.'"
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3. STABBING ATTACK IN RAMLE; ONE INJURED
by Ari Soffer
A 25-year-old man has been wounded in a stabbing attack in the city of Ramle, central Israel.
Two female Arab terrorists armed with knives were arrested at the scene of the attack, which took place at the entrance to the city's mall near the central bus station.
The terrorists have been identified as 13-year-old Israeli-Arab girls. Their victim is reportedly a security guard at the mall.
Magen David Adom (MDA) teams were called to the scene to treat the Israeli man. He was evacuated to Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Tzifrin suffering light injuries to the limbs.
After an initial investigation into whether the incident was criminal or nationalistic in motive, police have confirmed that it was indeed a terror attack.
Senior MDA paramedic Shlomo Alekselsi, who was in the mall at the time of the attack, described "suddenly" hearing people shouting "terrorists, terrorists."
"I ran immediately to the site," he said, and upon arrival he found "a young man around 25 years old, fully conscious and agitated, who had suffered several stab wounds to his limbs.
"I performed first aid and within a few minutes our (MDA) ambulance arrived at the scene and evacuated him to hospital."
Alekselsi said he witnessed security guards detaining "the two stabbers, and passed them on to security forces" who arrived at the scene shortly after.
4. LIFE SENTENCE FOR MURDERER OF MOHAMMED ABU KHDEIR
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The Jerusalem District Court sentenced on Thursday one of the minors convicted of murdering Mohammed Abu Khdeir to life in prison, and a second minor to 21 years in prison.
In November 2015, the two teens were convicted of murdering Abu Khdeir, the 16-year-old Arab youth from the Shuafat neighborhood of Jerusalem, in July of 2014.
Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, is said to have led the attack on Abu Khdeir but his lawyers say he suffers from a mental illness and was not responsible for his actions at the time.
The court has found that he committed the crime but has yet to rule if he is mentally competent.
It was claimed that the three individuals committed a revenge killing in response to the kidnapping and murder by three teens from Gush Etzion, whose bodies were found a day prior, at the hands of Palestinian terrorists.
According to the letter of indictment, the three individuals forced Abu Khdeir into a car and proceeded to hit him until he lost consciousness. They then proceeded to take him to the Jerusalem forest where they beat him in the head and burned him alive while he was unconscious.
Ben David and the two youths pleaded guilty soon after being apprehended. In spite of their guilty plea a full trial was conducted.
Life sentences were the maximum punishment available to the court.
5. LECTURER WHO FALSELY CLAIMED IDF SOLDIERS RAPE ARABS IS SACKED
by Gil Ronen
The Help Center for Victims of Sexual Assault has reportedly fired Naila Awad from her position as project coordinator in Nazareth, following scandalous allegations she made in a lecture at Oranim College on Monday.
About 30 students walked out on Awad after she claimed that IDF soldiers sexually harass and rape Arab women in Judea and Samaria.
When a student remarked that in Biblical times, Jewish men could take wives from populations they had defeated, Awad reportedly replied: "True. Today, too, many studies prove that IDF soldiers sexually abuse and rape Palestinian women in the Territories."
The discussion grew very heated from that point onward, and students demanded to see the studies Awad had been talking about. The students also claimed that the moderator, Walid Mula, made dismissive gestures and told the students to "look at your president, your chief of police. Keep living in an illusion, you and your holy army."
At that point, about 30 students got up and left.
Awad was a guest lecturer on behalf of the Help Center for Victims of Sexual Assault and an NGO named Women Against Violence, a longtime New Israel Fund grantee whose founder, Aida Touma Sliman, is now an MK for the Arab Joint List.
6. WATCH: STATE DEPT. SPOX LOSES PATIENCE WITH ANTI-ISRAEL REPORTER
by Gil Ronen
[youtube:2012200]
State Department spokesman James Kirby refused on Wednesday to let Arab reporter Said Arikat maneuver him into condemning slain Border Policewoman Hadar Cohen as being part of an "occupying force."
Cohen was killed Wednesday when three armed Arab terrorists mounted an attack on her and three other Border Police near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City.
When asked about the incident by AP's Matt Lee, Kirby said: "We do strongly condemn the attack in Jerusalem today in which two female border police officers were attacked with automatic weapons.
"As before, sadly, once again, we have to extend our deepest condolences to a mourning family and to friends and the community of the victim, and we wish the injured officer a full and complete recovery. As we've said before, there's no justification for these attacks," the spokesperson said.
At this point, Arikat moved in, asking: "These Border Police units, they are part of an occupying force. Correct? You agree with that?"
Kirby did not step into the verbal trap and said: "This was… border police officers that were on duty, doing their job."
"I understand you want to condemn this and that's your prerogative," Arikat replied, "but… how should the Palestinians respond to an overwhelming military presence that basically suffocates their lives? What [should they] do, in your opinion?"
Kirby's intonation was resolute: "Let me tell you what is not the way to do it, okay? The way to not do it is through attacks like today. The way to not do it is to incite those attacks with rhetoric that inflames these tensions. The way to do it – the way to move forward here – is through peaceful dialogue and conversation, and to take affirmative steps in both word and in action to walk people away from this kind of violence. That's the way to do this."
While he maintained his composure throughout, it appeared clear from his wording and tone of voice that Kirby was not happy with Arikat's attempts to get him to portray the slain policewoman as part of "an occupying force."
7. ISRAEL FACES THIRD YEAR OF DROUGHT, KINNERET RISES ONLY 22 CM
by Raphael Poch
The Israel Water Authority (IWA) plans to declare a drought for northern Israel this year, for the third year in a row.
The declaration comes due to not having received enough rainfall during the winter months up until and including January in the Kinneret drainage basin.
The IWA announced that, including the rainfall received in January, only one-third of the average annual rainfall fell in the region, causing the water level in the Kinneret to rise by only 22 centimeters.
This rise is only 12 percent of the expected annual rise of the lake due to winter rainfall. The IWA also said that since the beginning of the measuring period, only one year has been worse.
The hydrology department of the IWA published a report on Thursday in which it outlined that only 370 millimeters of rainfall graced the northern area around the drainage basin this winter, as opposed to the normal 550 millimeters. The average needed over the entire winter is 850 millimeters.
The average increase of the Kinneret sea level is a rise of 1.6 meters each winter, and this year falls far short of that number.
The IWA said in the statement that the Kinneret is currently 4.01 meters below the level that the water should be at. Currently the lake sits only 19 centimeters above the lowest red line, and sits at a height of 212.81 meters below sea level.
The lack of water is attributed to a very dry fall season, and even though January saw a lot of rainfall, Yedioth Ahronoth reports that the streams and underground springs in the area are flowing at only 50% of their capacity for this time of year.
The long term forecast predicts that this season will continue to be one of drought, with a dry February and March expected.
On the lower side of the Jordan Valley the surface height of the Dead Sea decreased by seven centimeters in January and now stands at the height of 429.92 meters below sea level. The sea has depreciated by 38 centimeters since the beginning of the rainy season in October.
8. WATCH: HASSIDIM WATCH 'FIDDLER ON THE ROOF' FOR THE FIRST TIME
by Ari Soffer
[youtube:2012172]
It's been 45 years since Norman Jewison released the now-iconic musical comedy-drama Fiddler on the Roof - but it might surprise you to know there are still some Jews out there who have never seen it.
To mark the occasion, the Jew in the City website showed the movie - which is set in a hassidic shtetle in Russia - to four real-life hassidic Jews who had never seen it before.
Finding participants was a more challenging task then you might expect, as Jew in the City's Allison Josephs recounted:
"Although, to an outsider, it is hard to distinguish between one black hat and beard and another, not every black hatted man has the same beliefs or practices. On the right- wing side of the modern Orthodox world, you will find men who wear black hats on the Sabbath. Within the Hasidic world, there is much diversity too.
"Two of our actors (the ones without the peyos [sidelocks - ed.]) are Chabad Lubavitch Hasidim, which means that in general, they are part of a more liberal sector of the Hasidic world and tend to interact more with the larger world. Because of this, it was hard to find guys who had never seen "Fiddler on the Roof" before!
"Our other two actors are part of Hasidic groups which are generally more conser- vative and less involved with the larger world, however even that group is divided into more "modern Hasidic" and more "ultra Hasidic" elements. So to find people who were willing to watch and be in the video but had not seen in before, too, was a challenge. Thankfully, we were able to find a couple of those guys too!"
While they all seemed to enjoy the film overall, the reviews were mixed, with some quick to note several inaccuracies in the portrayal of Jewish practices and social norms.
"The papa has the last word of the house? No way!" remarks one, while another questions why "all these Jews have long hair."
"I guess they just didn't have any barber shops," the other replies.
The two Chabad hassidim differed on whether the portrayal of Jewish women was offensive, while the other two hassidim raised their eyebrows at the portrayal of a Jewish wedding.
"I think it's a nice movie, but if you really want to know what hassidim are all about you're not gonna get the real picture from this!"
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