Court overturned parole board decision to release Dvir and Gamliel

Sunday, February 16, 2014 For the second time in six months the district court has overturned the decision of the Israeli Prison Service parole board to release Bat Ayin Underground members Shlomi Dvir and Ofer Gamliel, both of whom have served more than two-thirds of their 15 year prison sentence. In October, 2013 the Supreme Court of Israel upheld the district court’s decision to overturn the parole board’s decision to release Gamliel. The district court also overturned the parole board’s decision to release Dvir.
In 2002 Dvir, Gamliel and several other members of the Bat Ayin Underground were arrested on suspicion of planning an explosion at the exit of a Arab girls’ school in East Jerusalem in response to an attack on the community of Adora in the Har Hevron region in which four Jews were murdered, among them a five year old girl, Danielle Shefi. See here for background information on the case.
Dvir, the father of seven children, and Gamliel, the father of eight children, are both residents of Bat Ayin. They have been serving a 15-year prison sentence for close to 12 years and have undergone rehabilitation process. They have expressed regret for the acts for which they were convicted and have also spoken out in a public appeal to their community to prevent retaliatory acts against Arabs.
Honenu attorney Adi Kedar is representing Dvir and Gamliel.