Israel Matzav

Israeli doctor murdered two months ago may have been mistaken for MK

Many of you who have only seen our country in CNN clips may find this hard to believe, but Israel is a relatively safe country. With the relatively rare exceptions of barroom brawls and domestic violence, murders - and even violent assaults - are relatively rare. In a country where it sometimes seems that almost everyone is carrying a gun, handgun violence is almost unheard of. Random murders in the streets almost never happen here. And so, the seemingly random murder two months ago on a main street in Ramat Gan of Professor David Niv (pictured, top left), the director of the pain clinic at Tel Aviv's Souarsky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) shocked the country.

Today, there was an even bigger shock. A web site owned by 'moderate' 'Palestinian President' Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claims that Niv was murdered by the Brigades. But it was all a mistake. They were looking for a Member of Knesset with a similar license plate number.

Prof Niv, who served as director of the Pain Clinic at the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, was murdered about two month ago on a main road in the city of Ramat Gan. His car crashed into a tree, and police officers who were dispatched to the area discovered that it had been sprayed with bullets and that Niv was shot in the head.

Prof Niv had served as president of the European Federation of the IASP Chapters and had worked at the Sourasky Medical Center for more than 20 years.

Immediately after the incident, the police began looking into the possibility that he was mistake for someone else, as Niv was not familiar to the police.

One MK approached the Knesset officer and reported that his family owned a vehicle similar to the one Niv was driving when he was murdered. Four out of nine digits on the license plates were found to be identical.

The MK asked to remain anonymous. He was surprised by the publication on the website and clarified that the vehicle was under this name but that another family member was using it.

Another MK approached Shadar and informed him that one of his family members owned a vehicle similar to the one Prof Niv was driving, but without a similarity between the license plates.

Some of you may recall that then-Minister of Tourism Rechavam Zeevi HY"D was assassinated by terrorists from the 'Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine' in the fall of 2001.

Update 5:21 PM

The Jerusalem Post adds:

A gag order was issued soon after the incident hit the headlines, banning the publication of all details pertaining to the investigation.

At the time of the attack, the anesthesia and emergency trauma specialist was en route from Ichilov to his home in Savyon.

Niv was one of the leaders in establishing International Pain Day and chairman of the European Organization for the Treatment of Pain. He had three children, aged 12, 22 and 24.

Niv is not the first doctor to be murdered in cold blood by 'Palestinian' terrorists. On February 1, 2001, Dr. Shmuel Gillis, 42, of Karmei Tzur, was murdered by 'Palestinian' terrorists who fired at his car near the Aroub refugee camp on the Jerusalem-Hebron highway. Dr. Gillis HY"D was returning home from his shift at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem where he treated infertility problems (including numerous Arab patients).

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:32 PM