In Pursuit of Justice; Photo credit: Honenu
See here for a complete listing of podcasts and links to summaries in English.
Tuesday, June 22, 2021, 17:44 Honenu has launched a weekly Hebrew-language podcast, HaMerdaf Aharei HaTzedek (In Pursuit of Justice), the first episodes of which delve deep into the Kfar Duma arson case (the arson attack occurred in 2015 on the night between Thursday, July 30 and Friday, July 31). In the first episode, Honenu’s Ori Kirshenbaum hosts HaAretz journalist Chaim Levinson, and they discuss the investigation of the arson and the torture – under the protection of the law – to which the interrogated detainees were subjected by the GSS. Levinson refers to the possibility that Amiram Ben Uliel was tortured in order to thwart a crime. A term commonly used in such a situation is a “ticking time-bomb”, which is explained in a previous post about the second video in the series “Exposing the Duma Blood Libel”:
In a preemptive interrogation regarding a “ticking time-bomb”, when the interrogee is concealing information liable to pose an immediate danger to human lives, the law permits an interrogator to use violence on the interrogee in order to save lives. Therefore the GSS and the Justice Ministry claimed that the interrogees in the Kfar Duma case were “ticking time-bombs”. See here for the complete post.
Levinson, who covered events in Yehuda and Shomron at the time of the Kfar Duma arson and was one of the first journalists on the scene hours after the incident, brings his perspective about the case to the podcast. Levinson (translation by Honenu): “The GSS is playing around with the division between thwarting [a crime] and bringing a suspect to trial. Even if there had been justification [for using torture] to thwart [a crime], and that wasn’t the case, in my opinion, but let’s say that it was, bringing [a suspect] to trial is entirely another situation, very, very problematic. You see that everyone is trying to create a protective screen [to shield themselves from accusations of wrongdoing during the investigation]. By Saturday he had confessed because of the torture and from Saturday on, it was already out of his own free will.
Later in the podcast Levinson touched on the circumstances of Amiram Ben Uliel’s detention: “Amiram wasn’t on the radar at all. I always ask myself ‘What did they show the judge at his first remand extension?’”
Concerning the torture to which Ben Uliel was subjected, Levinson said, “The GSS doesn’t call it ‘torture’, but that’s a game of terminology,” and revealed a conversation that he had with a politician at the time of the arson. Levinson: “Once, I managed to intercept a document from a safe which held descriptions of the torture of Palestinian [detainees]. 80-90% of it matched what [Itamar] Ben Gvir described at the time. A cabinet minister called me after the public protest started at the time of the Duma [attack] and asked me, ‘Tell me, are they torturing?’ I told him, ‘You’re asking me? You’re in the cabinet!’ The minister replied to me and said: ‘Come on, tell me what you know.’ I told him: ‘I don’t know what’s in this case. I know what happens with the Palestinians. In fact, the document is in front of me.’ We concluded the conversation and I don’t know what he did with the information.”
A new episode of the podcast will be aired every week. In the coming weeks, the podcast will focus on the Kfar Duma arson case in light of the appeal filed with the Supreme Court. The varied interviewees, who are well acquainted with the case from different angles, will shed light on the interesting and diverse aspects of the case: legal, social, and communal.
Below are links to the first episode of the In Pursuit of Justice podcast – Hebrew only – on YouTube, Spotify and Anchor.
YouTube, Episode 1
Spotify, Episode 1
Anchor, Episode 1
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 defendants and GSS interrogees, see here. To familiarize our readers with the case, Honenu has gathered – see here – various articles and short videos on the subject.