Sunday Mail discovers how British tax money is funding 'Palestinian' terrorism
The 'Palestinians' are building the palace above for 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen using £8,000,000 (about $11,310,000) of British aid money, and after visiting the site, London's Sunday Mail Online has finally exposed it.
The shocking revelation that thousands of Palestinian terrorists, including men who have masterminded suicide bombings and murdered children, are given cash handouts from aid money will cause anger and disbelief, particularly in the wake of the Brussels massacres.
In the West Bank and Gaza, despite promises by the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) to end the practice of paying aid money to convicted terrorists, our investigation revealed that they had simply duped the West by allowing the Palestine Liberation Organisation to hand out the cash instead.
Britain gives £72 million a year to Palestine, more than one-third of which goes straight to the PA. It openly admits supporting terrorists whom it hails as heroes for fighting illegal occupation, awarding lifetime payments that rise depending on time spent in jail and the seriousness of crimes.
One Hamas master bomber has reportedly been given more than £100,000. Other ‘salaries’ go to the families of suicide bombers and even teenagers involved in the latest upsurge of deadly attacks on Israel.
DFID and the European Union are still effectively supporting these payments to thousands of terrorists – despite claims to have ended such links two years ago. This was confirmed to the MoS by former prisoners and families receiving the cash, and in official statements by the PA.
In fact, the 'Palestinians' are the main subject of the Mail's 'expose,' most of which could have been written by combing the archive of this blog and several others.
Ahmad Musa sits beside me, a convicted double murderer sentenced to life in prison. As we talk, I ask him if he did indeed kill the two men. ‘Yes, I shot them dead,’ he replies.
Yet we do not meet in a jail cell. Musa is free, released after just five years. For he is a Palestinian terrorist and he was liberated under a peace deal.
Like thousands more Palestinian prisoners, including jihadi bombers and killers of children, Musa enjoys his freedom after being awarded a ‘salary’ for life.
He gets £605 every month, others get far more. If they die, the cash goes to their family. These men are seen as terrorists, certainly by Israel, and many in the West.
But, astonishingly, the money behind these payments – described by some as ‘rewards for murder’ – flows from British and European taxpayers.
For the record, that 'salary' is about 150% of the average teacher's salary in the 'Palestinian Authority.'
The UK cash comes from the Department for International Development, which will give up to £25.5million this year to the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of a £72million aid package. Our investigation discovered that the PA passes millions on to the infamous Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) – which in turn gives it to convicted terrorists locked up in Israeli prisons and their families.
Among them are Amjad and Hakim Awad, cousins who killed Ehud and Ruth Fogel and their three children in their West Bank home in 2011. It is estimated that Amjad alone may have been paid up to £16,000 from the fund so far.
Yes, those are the Fogels HY"D (May God Avenge their blood) in the pictures above. Hakim was 18 and Amjad was 19 when they murdered the Fogels. Unfortunately, they're unlikely to die the slow and painful deaths they so richly deserve. Instead, they are being supported by British and European taxpayers.
Also on the payroll is Abdallah Barghouti, the Hamas bomb-maker who was sentenced to life after attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is thought he has received payments totaling £106,000.
Barghouti prepared the Sbarro suicide bombing (pictured above).
Dfid confirms that the PLO makes such payments, calling them ‘social welfare’ provisions for prisoners’ families.
It denies, however, that any British cash reaches terrorists, with the PLO taking over such payments two years ago from the PA after an international outcry.
But a Mail on Sunday investigation has found that Britain funded the PLO until last year and that the PA openly boasts of still funding salaries of convicted terrorists, even in its own official statements.
Former prisoners and the families of terrorists we have spoken to also confirmed receiving cash from both the PA and the PLO.
British aid money is supposed to be rebuilding and developing the Palestinian territories. However a devastating new report to be released this week by Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli NGO, suggests that Western donors have been duped by assertions that the Authority no longer funds terrorists.
Some Hamas terrorist masterminds have reportedly been given more than £100,000.
Other ‘salaries’ go to relatives of suicide bombers and even teenagers involved in the latest upsurge of deadly attacks on Israel. Several ex-prisoners confirmed to me that they were paid monthly stipends that started in jail.
One said they also received a ‘bonus’ on leaving prison and lucrative civil service job offers, the most senior posts going to those serving more than 15 years behind bars, even though they are not qualified.
PA officials openly defend such stipends. Amr Nasser, adviser to the minister of social affairs, said: ‘It is not a crime to be fighting occupation. These people are heroes.
‘We could be giving them much more money and it would not be enough.’ Nasser added that, if Palestine won independence, the government would seek reparations from Britain for its historic role in encouraging Zionism, saying ‘You should pay us more money.’
Cash is fungible.
There is no difference between the 'Palestinian Authority' and the PLO. It's a shell game.
And lest you think the Mail actually gets that they're doing something wrong other than wasting British taxpayer money... they don't.
The four million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza receive the highest aid support per head in the world. Few would deny they face unique problems given checkpoints, tough crackdowns and disputed settlements.
Their 'unique problems' are entirely of their own making. They could have had a peace agreement 22 years ago and more. They didn't want one.
I don't buy the claim made throughout this article that the 'Palestinians' are 'fooling' the West. They're not. Itamar Marcus, the author of the report on which the part of this article that deals with the 'Palestinians' is based, agrees.
Itamar Marcus, the report’s author, said: ‘There is wilful blindness by the UK and EU, who were happy not to even carry out the simplest investigation.’
Indeed.
But what's most astounding about this article is that it was supposed to be a report on how British foreign aid is wasted in general. There are about two paragraphs about other places in the world, and much, much more about the 'Palestinians,' who are Europe's (and Britain's) pet project. You don't think that has anything to do with rampant anti-Semitism in Britain and Europe, do you?
Elihai Ben Yishai, the brother of Ruti Fogel HY"D (May God Avenge her blood), who was murdered with four other family members in a terror attack three years ago this week, told a Knesset committee on Wednesday that the State of Israel should execute terrorists like the two above rather than facing demands for their release.
Elihai Ben-Yishai, the brother of Ruti Fogel Hy''d, took part in the Knesset Interior Committee discussion Wednesday, debating the fourth release of Arab terrorists by the Israeli government. Ruti was murdered in 2011 by Arab terrorists in her Itamar home in Samaria, along with her husband and three young children.
"The problem would be solved if they would kill the terrorists,
that's the solution," argued Ben-Yishai. "If we would kill these
degenerates at the start we wouldn't be in this unethical situation (of
releasing terrorists)."
...
"From an ethical and Jewish standpoint" which seeks to preserve
innocent human life "we need to eliminate the evil. To turn the debate
from being value-based to being political, that in exchange for freeing
prisoners we'll get Pollard or construction in Judea and Samaria, that's
not related. We must not free terrorists," stressed Ben-Yishai.
"This is our cry as a bereaved family, a cry stemming from a will to
live," noted the bereaved brother. Just a few weeks ago the third anniversary of the Fogel massacre was held. The youngest of the murdered children was Hadas, a three-month old infant.
In his comments, Ben-Yishai stressed that in discussing terrorist
releases one should first of all focus on the factors leading terrorists
to "get up in the morning" and attack innocents. The releases, he
suggested, encourage more terrorists to make that decision to attack.
Yahrtzeit (anniversary of death) of Aaron the High Priest
Today, the first day of the Jewish month of Av, is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the death) of the High Priest Aaron.
I can remember in the mid-to-late '90's that there were organized trips from Israel to the tomb (pictured), which is located in southern Jordan. The trips left in the wee hours of the morning, and returned in the wee hours of the following morning. One of my sons claims to have seen notices of such a trip this year. I have not seen them in years.
In the meantime, some people commemorate the occasion by visiting the tombs of his sons.
Hundreds marked the anniversary of the passing of Aaron the High
Priest by praying, Sunday evening, at the tombs of his sons, Elazar and
Itamar, in the Samarian (Shomron) Palestinian Authority-assigned village
of Awarta.
While most of the worshipers were from the
hareidi-religious community, religious Zionists and secular Jews were
also represented. The visit was organized by the Samaria Regional
Council and the Shechem Echad organization, in coordination with the
Israel Defense Forces and other security services.
If the name Awarta sounds familiar, it should. It is the home of the murderers of the Fogel family from Itamar. The graves of Elazar and Itamar were desecrated a year and a half ago with slogans praising the murderers. No one thought to call it terrorism.
On Saturday, in the Syrian town of Houla, 108 people were murdered by forces belonging to President Assad (although he is trying to blame al-Qaeda), including 32 children.
In Houla, the videos show that some of the civilian victims—with pieces of their bodies missing—were probably nonspecific, by which I mean that, as in all wars, they were simply killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the men who pressed the “fire” buttons on the artillery piece, or on the tank that fired the shells that ripped them apart, meant them no specific harm, per se, as individuals. Others, though, seem to show the telltale traces of up-close murders—the result of guns pressed against people’s heads and fired, and of knives drawn deeply across throats.
These latter victims, who include some of Houla’s dead children, are the most troubling of the deaths that are occurring in Syria today. They raise the question of whether there is any kind of peace plan, at this point, that is viable, at least in the minds of the actors in the conflict. That is why Houla is such a watershed event (and why the regime is claiming it is a set-up, to make it look bad).
In this kind of a war, which involves one community—the minority Alawites, who rule the country, and fear extinction at the hands of the much more sizeable Sunni community (including residents of Houla)—the killers just keep on doing their work, whatever their politicians say.
Ban Ki-moon has said that there is no U.N. “Plan B” in Syria. Plan A, to sum it up roughly, relies upon goodwill and a change of heart on the part of the Assad regime and the rebels fighting it. The thing is: What does one do when men become capable of cutting the throat of a small child?
Indeed, what does one do when men become capable of slashing the throat of a small child? For example, what does one do when men become capable of slashing the throat of a three-month old baby? Goodwill and change don't seem likely, do they?
The Shin Bet said on Sunday that "the organization's recommendation mainly relies upon the need to strengthen the aspect of deterrence among potential terrorists.
"In this case, the general need for deterrence is strengthened by a concrete consideration that stems from the fact that several of the terrorists' family members offered them assistance after the terror attack – by hiding the weapons stolen during the attack and by covering up the act through the destruction of evidence."
The Shin Bet denied that there are legal officials who are opposed to the move and mentioned a number of verdicts from the last decade where it was determined that the demolition of houses was legal and that there was no room, from the High Court's perspective, to intervene in these decisions.
"That was the case in the ruling over the destruction of the house of the terrorist responsible for the Merkaz Ha Rav yeshiva attack in 2005 and the destruction of the home of the terrorist who carried out the terrorist attack in Jerusalem in 2008," Shin Bet officials noted.
A meeting on the matter is set to take place over the next few weeks at the Attorney General's office with IDF and Defense Ministry representatives.
Maybe they ought to also seal the homes of the Machsom Watch traitors who felt it necessary to go comfort the murderers' families.
But yes, the terrorists' homes should be destroyed. Maybe then they won't consider them such heroes.
Ancient Jewish graves near Awarta desecrated with praise of mass murderers
The graves of Elazar and Ithamar - the two sons of the first High Priest, Aaron - were desecrated near the Arab village of Awarta in Samaria, along with the graves of the 70 Elders who acted as a court/legislature when the Jews entered Israel. The graves were desecrated with slogans praising the mass murderers Hakim and Amjad Awad, who murdered five members of the Fogel family in the nearby Jewish town of Itamar. The Awad's used to live in Awarta.
Recently, official 'Palestinian Authority' television - operated by our 'moderate' 'peace partner' - praised the Awads.
Obama silent on 'Palestinian' television glorification of Fogel murderers
I've already covered the 'Palestinian Authority's glorification of Hakim and Amjad Awad, murderers of five members of the Fogel family, here. Jeff Dunetz makes a good point about President Obama's non-reaction to that television show, as compared with his reaction to announcements of Jerusalem apartment construction.
Where is Mr. Friend of Israel, President Barack Obama? Why isn’t he condemning this glorification of a brutal act by the Government run by his buddy President Abbas? Palestinian State TV runs segments praising terrorists on a regular basis—but the US President and his Administration insists on criticizing Israel’s building of new housing units, saying, “this kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations.” Tell me, how many children had their throats slashed because of a new Israeli apartment in Jerusalem?
In striking contrast, the President has never issued a statement about the murder of the Fogel family and will likely continue his silence over Palestinian Authority TV’s praise of the perpetrators. Jewish voters who are reconsidering their votes for President Obama would do well to note where his priorities lie when condemning actions that are not “helpful when it comes to peace negotiations” in Israel.
Itamar’s killers remind us that genocidal anti-Semitism wasn’t buried in the ashes of Auschwitz.
Awad’s smile and his aunt’s praise convey unleashed hatred and the desire to expel, to destroy, to eliminate the Jews.
It's the same smile on the face of Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo chief in southeastern France from 1942 to 1944, who laughed all the time as his Jewish victims described the torture Nazis put them through, testifying at court in 1997.
It's the same hatred that filled Alois Brunner, Adolf Eichmann’s “best man” during the "final solution". Brunner was interviewed in the Austrian news magazine Bunte. He said he did not suffer from a bad conscience for, in his own words, “getting rid of that garbage” (the Jews). His one regret was that he hadn’t murdered more Jews.
In 1987, in a telephone interview, Brunner told the Chicago Sun Times: “The Jews deserved to die. I have no regrets. If I had the chance I would do it again…”.
Like Alois Brunner’s Aryanism, Itamar’s perpetrators see themselves as messengers of Allah sent to wipe out Jewish born and unborn babies. They are bent on total confrontation, on pursuing an either-or politics of victory or death.
The "aktion" in Itamar action has been publicly proclaimed in the name of Allah, his Prophet and the Koran. No rational argument can be used against an ideology maniacally dedicated to Jewish destruction, and that says so in every language, at every opportunity.
The authoritarian regime that rules the Arabs in the PA wants to eradicate Jewish life everywhere, in Itamar as well as in Zichron Yaakov.
Official 'Palestinian Authority' television praises murderer of Fogel family
The mother and aunt of Hakim Awad, one of the two murderers of Udi and Ruti Fogel and three of their children in Itamar HY"D (May God Avenge their blood), appeared on official 'Palestinian Authority' television on January 19 and 21 to praise this miserable excuse for a human being.
Let's go to the videotape.
But give them a state and they will stop lionizing mass murderers (and Israeli morons like Raya Yaron, pictured above, will stop sympathizing with them). Yeah, sure....
Send it to the New York Times and tell them to write about it.
On Monday, an Israeli military court convicted 19-year old Amjad Awad (right in the picture) of murdering five members of the Fogel family of Itamar last March. Earlier, his cousin Hakim (left in the picture) was convicted and sentenced.
Amjad will be sentenced at a later date. Unfortunately, the prosecution does not have the guts to seek the death sentence for either cousin, and both will likely be released at some future date for a kidnapped soldier or civilian.
Young cousins Hakim and Amjad Awad have just started serving five consecutive life sentences apiece for the cold blooded murder of Udi and Ruti Fogel and three of their children HY"D (May God Avenge their blood) in the Samarian village of Itamar this past March. They are not part of the terrorists for Gilad trade, but the way these things go, they could be part of the next deal, God forbid. Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) would like to make sure that doesn't happen. He wants the Awad cousins to be put to death now.
The Samaria Military Court convicted 18-year-old Hakim Awad for the murder of the five members of the Fogel family – three children aged between 3 months and 11 years, and their parents, Ehud and Ruth.
Ajmad Awad, the other man who has been charged with the killings in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, pleaded guilty at the beginning of October to five counts of murder.
“I don’t regret what I did, and would do it again,” Awad told reporters in May.
“I’m proud of what I did and I’ll accept any punishment I get, even death, because I did it all for Palestine.”
Israel has only carried out the death penalty in the case of one prisoner, Adolf Eichman.
The best way to make sure there are no more kidnappings is to kill the terrorists, not the hostages.
Outrageous: Family members of Fogel killers allowed to pick olives in Itamar
Family members of Hakim and Amjad Awad from the village of Awarta were allowed to pick olives on Sunday within the boundaries of the Jewish village of Itamar. Six months ago, Hakim and Amjad Awad stole into Itamar on a Friday night and murdered Udi and Ruti Fogel and three of their children HY"D (May God Avenge their blood). The Awad cousins gathered important intelligence information about Itamar during last year's olive harvest. On Sunday, 12-year old Tamar Fogel, the eldest daughter of Udi and Ruti and one of three surviving Fogel children, could only look on helplessly as the Awad clan taunted Itamar residents.
Settlers in Itamar were outraged Sunday morning after Palestinians from Awarta arrived in Itamar for their annual olive harvest in the settlement. According to the settlers, among the Palestinians who arrived in Itamar were the family members of Amjad and Hakim Awad who brutally stabbed and murdered five members of the Fogel family six months ago.
The settlers claimed that the Palestinians shouted "We'll Fogel you" and drew their fingers across their necks indicating slaughter.
Dozens of women and children from Itamar protested against the move, including Tamar Fogel who lost her parents and three siblings in the heinous terror attack. Several settlers threw rocks at Palestinians, one was lightly wounded. Security forces separated the two sides.
According to Itamar settlers, during last year's harvest, Hakim Awad entered the settlement and gathered information ahead of the massacre. "This is an abominable case of insensitivity," they said, "In previous years yeshiva students harvested the olives for the Palestinians and transferred them to Awarta's residents free of charge.
"After intervention from left-wing activists we were forced to allow the village residents to carry out their own harvest, but it is clear that with a little bit of thought and creativity we could have found a solution." The settlers claim that this is an "absurd situation where the family of the killer harvests olives meters away from where he butchered an entire family."
...
The Palestinians who arrived on the settlement accompanied by Police Special Forces and Border Guard officers claimed that they weren't close relatives of the murderers. "There are famers from the Awad family among the harvesters," admitted Jamal Kavarik, an Awarta resident, "but they weren't closely related to the murderers. The Awad clan in Awarta is numerous."
He attested to the fact that the IDF arrived at the scene in the early hours of the morning to secure the harvest and prevent altercations between the Palestinians and the settlers. "When we arrived on the field 15 settlers came down from Itamar and started throwing rocks at the farmers. I called the Coordination and Liaison Administration and told them and the IDF arrived at the scene."
Itamar residents had warned last year against allowing 'Palestinians' from Awarta to enter their town.
Will there - God forbid - be another terror attack?
In an email, David HaIvri, director of the Shomron Liaison Office, adds.
A flurry of emotions in Itamar:
Six months after the horrifying massacre committed by Amjad and Hackim Awed from the village Awarata, who brutally murdered five members of the Fogel family in Itamar, members of the murderer's family – the Awed clan- approached Itamar this morning (Sunday) for the seasonal olive harvest.
During last year's olive harvest, the murderer Hackim Awed had entered Itamar and collected information to prepare for his deadly attack, as a result was later able to enter Itamar for the second time, together with his brother Amjad, according to intel he acquired during the harvest.
Gershon Mesika, Head of the Shomron Regional Council contacted the commanding ranks of the IDF and Knesset Members in order to stop the murderess clan's harvest: "It is an outrage that cries out to Heaven. A year ago, exactly, I warned the army commands and the Civil Administration, that terrorists can use the olive harvest as an opportunity to collect intelligence before attacking. In spite of all my warnings, hundreds of Arabs from the village Awaratha were allowed into Itamar to harvest the olives. Among them was the murderer Hackim Awed, who then collected information before the massacre. I would expect that this year there would be some logical consideration.
Chairman of the Shomron Residence Committee, Benny Katzover responded severely to the actions of the Civil Administration: "There is no limit to the Civil Administration's lack of responsibility and of sensitivity. We thought that even the callous unilateral would have a limit. The Civil Admin' has surrendered, yet again, to the radical left wing and has endangered the life of Jews.
Brigadier-General (reserve) Rabbi Avichai Rozenki, head of Itamar Yeshiva, who was the Chief Military Rabbi has responded in astonishment: "only six months after the murder, while our blood is still boiling and the residents are still caring for their bleeding wounds, allowing anyone from the Awerata vilage, where the murderers of the Fogel family and the Shvo Family came from – is outrages and negligent!"
At this time the women of Itamar are protesting in the Itamar harvest areas. – Among the protesters is Tamar Fogel, orphan of the murdered family.
Four members of the Shvo (usually spelled Shabo) family - Rachel Shabo and three of her sons (Avishai – 5, Zvika – 13 and Neria – 16) - were murdered along with a neighbor in a 2002 terror attack by another member of the Awad clan.
18-year old Hakim Awad, one of two 'Palestinians' who confessed to the murder of the Fogel family of Itamar in March, was convicted on Tuesday in a military court.
Despite the fact that Awad, a high school student, had confessed his part in the murder to security services and the court, Judge Lt-Colonel Menahem Lieberman had nevertheless decided to examine detailed evidence gathered by the prosecution, including forensic findings, in order to rule out that Awad had lied about his part in the crime for "glory".
Hakim Awad was also convicted of weapons offenses and various other security offenses.
...
The following account of the massacre is based on confessions and a reenactment of the attack by Hakim Awad and Amjad Awad, and a painstaking investigation led by the Shin Bet.
On the night of March 11, as the Fogel family were asleep in their home in Itamar, Hakim and Amjad Awad set out from the village of Awarta, two kilometers to the south, armed with knives, face masks, and a wire cutter.
The two planned to carry out the murders of Israelis days before, and had made unsuccessful attempts to obtain firearms from a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) representative in their village.
But the lack of guns did not dissuade the two from carrying out their plan to murder Israelis.
The youths set out from their village on foot, and after a kilometer, they cut a wire fence around Itamar, climbed over a forest hilltop, and reached a row of homes in the settlement.
They first entered a home adjacent to the Fogel residence, but found that nobody was home. They stole an M-16 rifle from the home, ammunition, and body armor, before walking on down the street.
The youths then saw the Fogel family residence, and spotted children sleeping through the window.
Immediately after entering the home, the youths set their knives on two young brothers sleeping in their beds, 4-year-old Elad and 11-year-old Yoav, killing them both.
They then entered the parents' bedroom, where they launched a knife attack on Ehud and Ruth Fogel. The parents fought back, attempting to fend off the attackers, but died of their stab wounds during the struggle.
The two then left the house, before hearing cries from three-month-old baby Hadas. Awoken by the attack, the baby lay in her crib in her parents' bedroom.
"They went back into the house and stabbed the baby to death to silence her cries," a security source said.
Two other children remained in the home, but were spared because Hakim and Amjad did not know of their presence. Amjad later told interrogators that he would have killed them too had he known that they were in the home.
After murdering five members of the family, the suspects walked back to the village, and told Hakim's uncle, PFLP member Salah Adin Awad, what they had done.
Salah hid their firearms, and instructed them to burn their bloody clothes.
The youths then resumed their daily lives, while Salah sent the weapons to a friend in Ramallah, Jad Avid, who hid the guns in his home.
The military court is expected to reconvene in September to hear arguments for sentencing Hakim Awad.
The second youth indicted in the massacre, Amjad Awad, will be tried separately, because he and Hakim have testified against each other and so cannot be tried together. According to a spokesperson for the IDF, Amjad Awad will be tried on August 16th.
There are three big problems here. One is that although they should get the death penalty, they won't, and they will likely be released in a 'prisoner exchange' at some point in the future. Second, the 'Palestinian Authority' will likely lionize them as heroes, naming camps and sports tournaments after them. And third, there are certain despicable Israelis who will feel sorry for the terrorists and their families (and on top of that have no sympathy for the victims or their surviving families).
May God avenge the blood of the Fogel family before our eyes.
I apologize for the lengthy and unexpected break from posting. I have a client who has been going through a major business crisis today. Mrs. Carl would likely say that she wishes it would happen more often, especially once she sees the money hit the bank account....
The Los Angeles Times does an unbelievably sympathetic portrayal of two brutal murderers, the murderers of five members of the Fogel family of Itamar. The blog post (that's what it is) was written by one Maher Abukhater of "Ramallah, West Bank." This guy makes every excuse you can possibly make for two people who, among other things, slit the throat of a three-month old baby.
“They said they have done it and they are not going to plead innocent or claim they made their confession under duress,” their attorney, Faris Abu Hasan, said. “I do not know what kind of state of mind they were in when they confessed.”
Hasan said he thought they had given up on life and didn’t believe they would make it alive into the heavily fortified settlement of Itamar, let alone survive getting back out.
The two Palestinians, residents of Awarta, cooperated fully with their interrogators and gave them full and explicit details of how they had accomplished the killings.
...
Hasan, who only has met them once since the army announced their arrest, believes the Awads are resigned to their fate. He says once the case comes to court, which may be soon, the pair will plead guilty.
Once the prosecutor presents the list of charges to the military court, which will convene May 27 in a northern West Bank military base, the judge will set a date for the trial. Hasan said it will likely take just one court session for the judge to pass sentence because the Awads will admit committing the killings and testify that they were not coerced into making their confessions.
An Israeli military judge Tuesday gave the army prosecutor 10 days to present the charge list against the boys.
“I do not think I will have a case in court,” Hasan said. “It seems that it is already decided.”
Yeah, confessions with forensic evidence tend to shorten trials, don't they? But you can bet this trial will still take a lot longer than any trial in the 'Palestinian Authority.' And unfortunately, since we haven't administered the death penalty since Adolph Eichmann 50 years ago, these two monsters will likely sit in jail getting an education until they are sprung in a 'prisoner exchange' - maybe even for Gilad Shalit.
Meet Hakim and Amjad Awad (top left). They stand accused of the murders of Udi, Ruti, Yova, Elad and Hadas Fogel HY"D (may God avenge their blood) in Itamar a little over a month ago. From this article, it sounds like the case against them is pretty much open and shut.
Awarta has 8,000 inhabitants. Suspicion fell at first on the local Kawarik clan, two of whose male members had been killed a year earlier in an incident involving the IDF. It was thought that the motive was revenge for those deaths and dozens of men from the Kawarik family were arrested and questioned.
But that line of inquiry proved fruitless. None of the suspects turned out to have any connection to the murders.
The investigation, carried out jointly by the IDF and Shin Bet, intensified as DNA samples were taken from men and women in Awarta, in an attempt to match forensic evidence from the Fogel house with a specific family in the village.
Finally, on April 5, over three weeks after the murder, in an operation carried out by the elite Duvdevan unit, 17-year-old Hakim Awad was arrested at his home in Awarta and, under Shin Bet questioning, admitted to having participated in the murders. He gave away the name of his partner, 18-year-old Amjad Awad - no relation - who was arrested five days later.
Palestinian spokesmen said that the two had confessed under torture, but Israeli sources denied that any physical or illegal pressure had been used. Their confessions were borne out by the DNA matches.
But here's the scariest part:
"While both suspects grew up in families that were affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), there is no evidence that they carried out their actions in co-ordination with any organisation," said a senior Shin Bet official. "This was a private initiative and very few people in the village knew about it."
How many more 'Palestinian' kids are there who are 16, 17 and 18, who have grown up on incitement and who might undertake this kind of thing as a 'private initiative'? Hundreds? Thousands? I understand how the IDF can stop an organized terror group, but how can it stop two kids who decide on their own to become shahids? The answer is that they probably can't.
Another point that bears making here. The reason these murders were resolved relatively quickly is that the IDF and the Shin Bet undertook the investigation and kept it away from the 'Palestinian Authority.' Knowing that the 'Palestinian Authority' could get involved - and knowing what is likely to happen to the murderers if they do - is an incentive for the IDF and the Shin Bet to treat each such investigation as a top priority. Compare that to the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis two weeks ago, which the IDF has left to the 'Palestinian Authority' to handle. There has been no news and no arrests. And given Mer-Khamis' unpopularity in Jenin, I don't expect any either.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
