Since the July 2015 arson attack on the Dawabshe family’s house in Kfar Duma, Honenu has assisted many Jews accused of involvement with the crime. For a selection of posts describing Honenu Attorneys’ representation of Amiram Ben Uliel, click here, and for a selection of posts about other defendants and GSS interrogatees, click here. To familiarize our readers with the case, Honenu has gathered – click here – various articles and short videos on the subject.
Demonstration of torture methods; Photo credit: Otzma Yehudit
Thursday, August 7, 2025, 10:59 Ten years ago, a number of Jews, including a minor, were detained on suspicion of involvement in the Kfar Duma arson attack, and they were tortured during GSS interrogations. Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar filed a complaint on behalf of the minor, stating that he had undergone a brutal GSS interrogation that caused him pain, physical suffering, emotional suffering, and deprived him of his free will to the point that he made a false confession. Only now, almost ten years after the complaint was filed, Attorney Asaf Shavit, the Deputy Head of Mivtan, the department of the Justice Ministry authorized to investigate complaints by GSS detainees, has rejected it.
The minor recently received a letter from Mivtan stating that although the Central District Court in Lod invalidated the confessions extracted from him during “necessary investigations,” interrogations in which intensive pressure is applied, this does not mean that the interrogations were illegal. The Deputy Head of Mivtan also explained why the “necessary investigations” were necessary, and added that the “special means” applied during the interrogations were legal. Regarding the minor’s complaint about the various ruses used on him during interrogation, Attorney Shavit replied that they were “permissible ruses,” and were not a violation of the fair trial to which he was entitled.
In the end, Mivtan rejected the complaint: “Examination of the evidence and the court decisions… does not reveal grounds for suspecting that a crime was committed against your client. Moreover, it has been decided, with the approval of Deputy State Attorney (Special Duties) Attorney Alon Altman, that there is no justification to open a criminal or disciplinary investigation into the matter.”
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar, who is representing the minor, leveled criticism at Mivtan over the lengthy time that elapsed since the complaint was filed: “The fact that we received a reply only now to a complaint filed almost ten years ago, indicates a lack of oversight in the GSS. ‘There is no judgment and no judge.’ There is no review of the interrogators’ actions.”
Attorney Keidar added that, “It is intolerable for the oversight body to wait for judicial decisions and only then to announce its own decision. If that is the situation, the oversight body has no power, and no purpose. That is delusional and absurd. The reality is that a minor was beaten and abused during interrogation over an incident that occurred six months prior.
“The violence applied to him is unconscionable. It started with a rough and intimidating ruse designed to get him to talk during his detention in Acco Prison, and continued with physical, psychological, and verbal violence against him in the interrogation rooms. These brutal practices must be condemned. No legal ruling will render them acceptable,” concluded Attorney Keidar.