Tel Aviv meeting with US ambassador

From today's Israel National News:

Terror Victims Families Meet U.S. Ambassador
Ambassador Shapiro meets relatives of terror victims whose murderers were set free in U.S.-sponsored “gesture.”
By Gil Ronen | Israel National News
First Publish: 8/24/2013, 10:28 PM

Representatives of relatives of the slain victims of Arab terrorists met U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, on Friday. The terrorists who murdered the relatives' loved ones were recently set free by Israel in a U.S.-sponsored “gesture” at the start of “peace talks” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The meeting took place at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, following a letter from the bereaved relatives to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in which they protested the release of 104 terrorist murderers.

Secretary Kerry asked Ambassador Shapiro to meet the representatives.

The bereaved relatives protested to Kerry over the festive welcome held for the released murderers in the PA, in which official representatives of the PA took part. “For the families, these celebrations express the insincerity of the PA and the lack of will to work for real peace.”

A similar report in Hebrew, with the above photo, appears
in the Israeli daily newspaper Yisrael Hayom today, August 25, 2013

The families said Ambassador Shapiro listened with great interest, showed much empathy to their situation and promised to look into the possibility of a meeting with Kerry.

The representatives included Yossi Tzur, whose son, Asaf, was killed on Bus 37 in Haifa in 2003; Yossi Mendelevich, whose son Yuval was also murdered on Bus 37, and Ron Kerman, whose daughter, Tal, was murdered on the same bus, and Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malki was murdered at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem.

"Peace cannot be built on foundation of glorifying the murderers"

The article below appeared in the Washington Free Beacon:

Terror Victims Criticize John Kerry After Prisoner Release: Families ask for a sit down with secretary of state to express their concerns

Adam Kredo | Washington Free Beacon | August 14, 2013 10:50 am

A group of Israeli terror victims lashed out at Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday in an open letter that accuses the U.S. leader of wrongly pressuring the Jewish state to free 104 Palestinian terrorists ahead of Middle East peace talks.

“You have encouraged the government of Israel to free more than a hundred convicted terrorists, almost all of them killers,” a group of 18 families whose relatives were killed by Palestinian terrorists wrote to Kerry.

The families, who call themselves the Bereaved Families for Peace and Justice, are asking that Kerry meet with them so that they can explain “why being complicit in turning the killers of our children and parents into heroes and ‘freedom fighters’ must not be part of any policy befitting a great nation and moral exemplar like the United States.”

The families organized two protests on Sunday and Monday in front of Israeli government buildings to express their opposition to the prisoner release deal, which they described as “a tragic mistake.”

Twenty-six Palestinian terrorists were released Tuesday evening ahead of peace talks. Those freed included a terrorist who murdered a Holocaust survivor as well as others who were serving life sentences for the killing of Israeli citizens.

“We are turning to the government of the United States whose leaders have been instrumental in extracting from Israel a painful, damaging decision that—even now, before it is fully carried out—is already being cheapened by Arab voices,” the letter states.

“We say to you, as U.S. Secretary of State, and to your colleagues in the Obama administration: You will not find ordinary citizens anywhere, and certainly not in Israel, who are more convinced of the need for painful compromise and of bilateral concessions in the pursuit of peace than we are,” they wrote.

While peace between the Israelis and Palestinians must ultimately be reached, the families say that it “cannot be built on a foundation of glorifying the bombers of restaurants and of buses and those who sent them,” they wrote. “To think otherwise is to admit a fatal flaw to the plan to bring an end to the hatred.”

The Palestinian Authority has asked its officials to refer to the released terrorists as “freedom fighters.”

PA President Mahmoud Abbas has already celebrated the return of the terrorists, posing for pictures where he can be seen hugging those released.

The Israeli terror victims have asked that Kerry sit down with them during his next visit to the region. “We ask you to make time to meet with a small group of us when you come back to this area in the coming days. We urge you to re-connect with the human dimension of the process you have started,” they wrote. The families believe that Palestinian insistence on the release of these terrorists is a sign that they are not committed to living in peace with Israel.

“The willingness to make huge efforts to get them out of Israeli prisons tells us much about how Arab society sees them and the way they symbolize victory in the fight with Israel,” they wrote. “A string of prison breaks attributed to al Qaeda in the last month freed hundreds of jailed terrorists across the Islamic world, showing how imprisoned terrorists are an invaluable resource.”

“Freeing them justifies serious effort,” the letter states. “Yet Israel is handing them over with nothing tangible in return.”

Asked about the timing of the letter, Bereaved Families spokesman Yossi Zur told the Washington Free Beacon that it “was put in motion by John Kerry and his agenda.”

“We wanted to ask him why he pushed Israel to do what U.S. would never do,” said Zur, whose son was murdered by a Hamas bomber while riding the bus in 2003.

“We wanted him to see us and hear first hand what we think and how it feels,” Zur said.

The State Department is currently considering the letter. “We’ve received the letter yesterday, and we’re reviewing it,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told the Free Beacon.

“It’s important to note that the secretary both respects the exclusive right of the Israeli government to make these decisions, and has applauded the courage of both parties to make difficult decisions as part of this process,” Harf said. “The decision to release these prisoners was taken by Israel only after the most serious review, at the highest levels of the Israeli government. Prime Minister Netanyahu made a tough decision that he determined was in the best interests of the Israeli people.”

Daily Beast: Families of victims seek to explain to Kerry dangers of releasing Palestinian prisoners

Our letter to John Kerry was the focus of an article by Eli Lake in The Daily Beast, published on August 12, 2013.

Palestinian Prisoners Released on the Eve of Peace Talks

Eli Lake | Aug 14, 2013 | 4:45 AM EDT | Plotting suicide bombings, throwing grenades, killing a Holocaust survivor—these were among the crimes of the 26 prisoners Israel released Tuesday to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table. Eli Lake reports.

Call it the dark side of the peace process. Just hours before the start of new negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians on Wednesday, Israel released 26 prisoners its courts had convicted of murder or accessory to murder.

The prisoners were freed as an inducement for the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to participate in the peace talks. Since 2009, Abbas has said he would participate in negotiations only if Israel stopped settlement activity after President Obama imposed the condition on Israel in the first year of his first term. But Abbas has moderated his position at the behest of Secretary of State John Kerry, who has made restarting the peace process a high priority. The moderation of Abbas was tested this week after Israel announced new housing construction in some West Bank settlements.

Palestinian negotiators have said they expect Israel to release 104 prisoners. Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator, told Israeli Arabic-language radio on Tuesday, “We hope to put into effect what we’ve agreed on...we hope for the release of 104 prisoners. Each will return to his house. This is what we’ve agreed on.” He added, “There is a clear understanding between us and the Americans and Israelis. Any change [in that] will mean the agreement is off the table.”

While Israel holds thousands of Palestinians in prison, some for small offenses such as throwing rocks, the prisoners released Tuesday evening were convicted of more serious crimes. Among the released are Palestinians who have plotted suicide bombing attacks, thrown grenades at checkpoints, and committed murder, according to documents published by the Jerusalem Post. One of them, 40-year-old Atiyeh Salem Abu Musa, was jailed in 1994 for hacking a Holocaust survivor to death with an ax.

Some families of victims of prisoners who have been released in the past are now seeking a meeting with Kerry to explain to him what they see as the dangers of pressuring Israel to release to release Palestinians from prison.

“We don’t see this as a step towards peace,” Arnold Roth, one of the Israelis who helped organize a letter to the secretary of State, told The Daily Beast. “The objection is to the madness of positing the peace process on the prior release of murderers. We support a peace process.”

Roth has some experience with the pain of seeing the killer of a loved one go free. His daughter, Malki, was killed in Aug. 9, 2001, in the bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem. One of the planners of that attack, Ahlam Tamimi, who also broadcast the bombing for Palestinian television from Ramallah, walked free from multiple life sentences in 2011. Tamimi was one of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for Gilad Shalit, the Israel Defense Forces corporal who was abducted in 2006 by Hamas in a cross-border raid. Roth, who is still mourning the death of his 15-year-old daughter, said Tamimi has since married and is now pregnant with a child of her own.

Roth signed a letter sent Tuesday to Kerry asking him for a meeting. “Meet with us,” wrote Roth and 16 other family members of victims. “Let us explain why being complicit in turning the killers of our children into heroes and ‘freedom fighters’ must not be part of any policy befitting a great nation and moral exemplar like the United States.”

Kerry and other State Department officials have kept largely quiet on the behind-the-scenes dealmaking needed to bring the Palestinian Authority to the negotiating table. A State Department spokeswoman on Tuesday declined to call the prisoners scheduled for release “terrorists” when asked.

Marie Harf, deputy spokeswoman for the State Department, told The Daily Beast, “We’ve received the letter today, and we’re reviewing it.” She also said Kerry “respects the exclusive right of the Israeli government to make these decisions.” But Harf stressed that Israel alone made the decision to release the prisoners.

“The decision to release these prisoners was taken by Israel only after the most serious review, at the highest levels of the Israeli government,” she said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu made a tough decision that he determined was in the best interests of the Israeli people.”

Said Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine: “Some of the people who have been released clearly did some bloody deeds. Some of the people who are being released are now old, some are affiliated with organizations that are not functional.”

Erekat told reporters on Tuesday that he was disappointed the Israeli side had not allowed his side to have input in choosing the prisoners scheduled for release.

Our letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry, August 13, 2013

We delivered the following open letter on August 13, 2013 to the US Secretary of State, John Kerry. We have not yet gotten a formal response, though the Embassy of the United States in Tel Aviv did make contact and invite us to meet with the Ambassador for a discussion about the contents.

Statement on behalf of

Bereaved Families for Peace and Justice

Jerusalem | Tel Aviv | Haifa

bereaved.families@gmail.com

August 13, 2013

Dear Secretary of State Kerry:

You have encouraged the government of Israel to free more than a hundred convicted terrorists, almost all of them killers, starting this week. We, the undersigned, are Israelis who lost loved ones to actions like those for which the terrorists were convicted and sentenced. The decision to free them is a tragic mistake. Justice and good sense say it should be reversed.

The terrorists, guilty of acts of savagery, are emerging into freedom proud and erect. Instead of telling them to go quietly home to make peaceful lives while thanking their lucky stars, their leaders, principally the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, exalts them as heroes. It asks the world’s nations to do the same. The spilled blood of innocent Jewish and Arab civilians is offered to the Arab street as proof of valor and courage. This is a sick perversion of reality.

Since the deal was first proposed, we have wondered what could have induced Israel’s political leaders to agree. What caused the author of “Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists”, a best selling book by Binyamin Netanyahu that tells governments they will win only by refusing to give in to the terrorists, to betray the core ideas that are said to have guided his political career?

The arguments against releasing terrorists are many. In terms of security, terrorists often go back to terror. This is especially so when their society proclaims their freedom as vindication for their deeds, as the Abbas PA is doing today. Their freedom and the celebrations that attend it also serve as a form of incitement to future terror, as all who wish harm on Israel observe that the Jewish state is willing to release the murderers of its children for a few moments of positive media coverage. Some 180 Israelis have been murdered by terrorists who were released in previous rounds of “goodwill” gestures. Then there is the law. If courts pronounce sentence on murderers, and the politicians release them long before those sentences have been served, the judicial system is undermined. Since law and justice are at the heart of every democratic society, democracy is endangered. And there is an educational message – a sickening one. British television’s Channel 4 screened a documentary some years ago called “Inside the mind of a suicide bomber”. Filmed in an Israeli prison, it shows interviews with failed bombers and those who planned the massacres. The cold, frank answers of the killers reinforce our belief that it is madness to allow them back in the villages and on the roads.

One of them is Majdi Amro, sentenced to 17 life terms for his part in a Haifa bus bombing that ended the lives of seventeen people, most of them high school students. He is the murderer of the teenage children of several signatories to this letter. Amro says to the camera: “I am not worried! I will not be in jail for long. I will be out shortly and will go back to killing Jews.” And indeed he walked free two years ago, despite those multiple life terms. A decision by a previous Netanyahu government, calculated to secure the freedom of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli hostage of the Hamas terrorists, ensured that.

Another film produced inside a prison shows another convicted Palestinian Arab terrorist, Ahlam Tamimi, sentenced to 16 life terms for murder and terrorism, saying: "I'm not sorry for what I did. We'll become free from the occupation and then I will be free from prison.” When it was her turn to be freed in that same Shalit deal, she said about the people she killed: “I had hoped for a larger toll.” She murdered the daughters of signatories to this letter too. From her home in Jordan, she is now a television celebrity throughout the Arabic-speaking world, the object of open adulation. Her message is: the killings were justified, punishment in Israeli prisons is temporary and bearable, terrorism works.

The Israeli politicians of two years ago warned that any return to terror by those released would result in immediate arrest, re-imprisonment, enforced completion of the original sentence and so on. They are saying it this week too. But Tamimi’s example proves that such words are empty.

                                                                         

Something else about releasing terrorists: the willingness to make huge efforts to get them out of Israeli prisons tells us much about how Arab society sees them, and the way they symbolize victory in the fight with Israel. A string of prison breaks attributed to Al Qaeda in the last month freed hundreds of jailed terrorists across the Islamic world, showing how imprisoned terrorists are an invaluable resource. Freeing them justifies serious effort. Yet Israel is handing them over with nothing tangible in return.

The attempt to rescue a kidnapped Israeli serviceman, Nachshon Waxman, in 1994 resulted in the deaths of the hostage and of the commander of the IDF rescue squad. Since then, the military option appears to have been removed from the table. Israelis have been told that handing over more and more imprisoned terrorists is the only remaining alternative. An Israel Today poll asked whether they agreed but the respondents showed that they see through the falseness of the argument. Nine to one, they were against setting more Palestinian killers free. When the government’s decision was taken a few days later, the clear opposition of the people was ignored.

We are left with many questions and few answers. The deep pain within us expresses not only our private grief but the expectation of more unbearable losses in the future that will threaten our society and grimly enlarge the ranks of those like us – families who have lost our children, parents, aunts, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers to Palestinian murderers.

We are turning to the government of the United States whose leaders have been instrumental in extracting from Israel a painful, damaging decision that – even now, before it is fully carried out – is already being cheapened by Arab voices.

We say to you, as US Secretary of State, and to your colleagues in the Obama administration: you will not find ordinary citizens anywhere, and certainly not in Israel, who are more convinced of the need for painful compromise and of bilateral concessions in the pursuit of peace than we are. We have paid an unbearably high price for this generations-long conflict. We know it must end. But the process of making it end cannot be built on a foundation of glorifying the bombers of restaurants and of buses and those who sent them. To think otherwise is to admit a fatal flaw to the plan to bring an end to the hatred.

Meet with us. Let us explain why being complicit in turning the killers of our children and parents into heroes and ‘freedom fighters’ must not be part of any policy befitting a great nation and moral exemplar like the United States. It is not too late. We ask you to make time to meet with a small group of us when you come back to this area in the coming days. We urge you to re-connect with the human dimension of the process you have started.

Signed on behalf of Bereaved Parents for Peace and Justice  (alphabetical by surname)

Moshe	Bartov	Son of Frida (a Holocaust survivor) and Alter Britvitz, murdered by terrorists
Cyril	Feinberg	Father of Ian (30), murdered by terrorists
Estelle	Feinberg	Mother of Ian (30), murdered by terrorists
Estie	Firstater	Mother of Smadar (16), murdered by terrorists
Ron	Kehrmann	Father of Tal (18), murdered by terrorists
Doron	Menchel	Father of Danielle (22), murdered by terrorists
Hagit	Mendellevich	Mother of Yuval (13), murdered by terrorists
Yossi	Mendellevich	Father of Yuval (13), murdered by terrorists
Dr Gila	Molcho	Sister of Ian (30), murdered by terrorists
Shula	Oved	Mother of Be’eri (21), murdered by terrorists
Zamir	Oved	Father of Be’eri (21), murdered by terrorists
Avivah	Raziel	Mother of Michal (16), murdered by terrorists
Arnold	Roth	Father of Malki (15), murdered by terrorists
Frimet	Roth	Mother of Malki (15), murdered by terrorists
Galit	Shtayer	Daughter of Ruth and Zeev Almog, sister of Moshik, aunt of Tomer, mother of Asaf, all murdered by terrorists
Ofer	Shtayer	Son-in-law of Ruth and Zeev Almog, brother-in-law of Moshik, uncle of Tomer, father of Asaf, all murdered by terrorists
Leah	Zur	Mother of Asaf (17), murdered by terrorists
Yossi	Zur	Father of Asaf (17), murdered by terrorists

Twenty-six murdering terrorists walk free. Their victims remain behind.

The following details are published here by agreement with CIFwatch which published them originally a day before the murderers were set free - on August 12, 2013 ["The list of 26 Palestinian prisoners who will go free, and their victims"]. 

In publishing this information, CIFwatch noted that many in the media, prominent among them The Guardian, The Independent and the Irish Times, have whitewashed the violent, and often brutal, crimes of the prisoners being released, and, conversely, have depicted the families of the soon-to-be released prisoners in a disturbingly sympathetic light. Hence the importance of providing details of the innocent people who were their victims. (The complete list of the co-called pre-Oslo prisoners, gathered, translated, edited and published exclusively by CAMERA in online here.)

1. Kour Matwa Hamed Faiz (Fatah. Born 1964, resident of Judea & Samaria, arrested 1985) was sentenced to one life term for his part in establishing an armed Fatah cell and for the murder of Menahem Dadon in 1983 and for another attempted murder. Menahem Dadon from Netivot was 22 years old when he was murdered. He had been sent by his employer to purchase building materials in Gaza and whilst in the shop, was shot in the head at point-blank range. He left a pregnant wife and two daughters.
2. Tsalah Ibrahim Ahmed Mugdad (Fatah. Born 1966, resident of Judea & Samaria, arrested 1993) was sentenced to 32 years imprisonment for the murder of Israel Tennenbaum and was due to be released on 13/6/2025. Born in Poland in 1921, Israel Tennenbaum from Moshav Vered was a farmer who also worked as a security guard at a hotel in Netanya despite being 72 years old at the time of his death. In June 1993 Tsalah broke into the hotel and murdered Israel Tennenbaum by beating him over the head with a steel rod. He also stole a television from the hotel.
3. Na’anish Naif Abdel Jafar Samir (Born 1967, resident of Judea & Samaria, arrested 1989) was sentenced to a life term for his part in the murder of 24 year-old reservist Binyamin Meisner in February 1989. Na’anish was part of a group which lured Meisner into an ally in Nablus (Shechem) in which they had pre-prepared a stockpile of rocks. Binyamin Meisner was killed by a blow to the head with a stone. 
4. Arshid A’Hamid Yusuf Yusuf (Fatah. Born 1968, resident of Judea & Samaria, arrested 1993) was sentenced to five life sentences after having been convicted of the murders of Nadal Rabu Jaab, Adnan Ayaad Dib, Mufid Canaan, Tawfik Jaradat and Ibrahim Said Ziad by stabbing. Arsheed was also indicted on several additional counts of attempted murder of others he suspected of ‘collaboration’.
5. Al-Haj Othman Amar Mustafa (Fatah. Born 1968, resident of Judea & Samaria, arrested 1989) was sentenced to a life sentence for his part in the murder of 48 year-old Frederick Steven Rosenfeld in June 1989. Rosenfeld was hiking in the hills near Ariel when he came across a group of shepherds who stabbed him to death with his own knife and hid his body.
6. Matslah Abdallah Salama (Hamas. Born 1969, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested 1993) was sentenced to one life sentence for the murder of Reuven David in Petah Tikva in 1991. Together with an accomplice, Matslah entered 59 year-old Iraqi-born Reuven David’s mini-market, tied him up, gagged him and then beat him to death, before escaping in the victim’s car. He left a wife, three children and several grandchildren.
7. Abu-Musa Salam Ali Atia (Fatah. Born 1971, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested 1994) was convicted of the murder of Isaac Rotenberg from Holon as part of an initiation rite for joining a terror organisation and sentenced to one life sentence. Holocaust survivor Isaac Rotenberg was born in Poland. Most of his family was murdered in the Sobibor death camp, but Isaac managed to escape and joined the partisans. After the war he tried to make his way by ship to mandate Palestine, but was interred by the British and sent to a detention camp in Cyprus until 1947. After his release Isaac arrived in pre-state Israel and fought in the War of Independence. He continued his work as a plasterer even after pension age and in March 1994 was at his place of work in Petah Tikva when he was attacked by two Palestinian labourers with axes. He died, aged 67, two days later.
8. Miklad Mahmoud Ziad Salah (Fatah. Born 1973, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested 1993) was sentenced to one life sentence for the murder of 39 year-old Yehoshua Deutsch in Kfar Yam, Gush Katif, in March 1993. In addition he fired shots at an army post and tried to murder a local resident. Yehoshua Deutch grew flowers and it was in his greenhouse that he was stabbed in the heart by Miklad.
9. Tsualha Bad Almajid Mahamad  (Fatah. Born 1973, resident of Judea & Samaria, arrested 1990) was sentenced to one life sentence for the murder – together with accomplices – of Baruch Heizler and the attempted murder of Betty Malka, Shai Cohen and Avishag Cohen in 1990 whilst he was still a minor. Baruch Heizler – named after his grandfather who was killed by Jordanian shelling of the Old City of Jerusalem during the War of Independence – was 24 when he was stabbed to death whilst travelling on the number 66 bus in Ramat Gan after having missed the ride to his seminary. Three other passengers were injured in the same attack.
10. Sha’at Aazat Shaba’an Aataf (Born 1964, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested 1993) was sentenced to 29 years’ imprisonment after having been convicted of accessory to murder and was due to be released on March 14, 2022. Sha’at drove his accomplices to and from the scene of the murder of 51 year-old Simcha Levi in Khan Yunis in 1993. Simcha Levi was born in Persia in 1942 and immigrated with her family to Israel in 1950, settling in Moshav Patish in the Negev. Simcha’s job was to drive Arab labourers to their place of work and on the day of her murder she picked up female labourers in Khan Yunis in the south Gaza Strip. Three terrorists disguised as women beat and stabbed her to death in her vehicle in a pre-planned attack.
11. Abdel-Aal Sayid Ouda Yusef (Born 1979, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested in 1994) was sentenced to 22 years for, along with accomplices, throwing 2 grenades – which did not explode – at Border Police forces. On a different occasion, he placed a bomb next to a Border Police facility but the explosion did not cause damage. Also, he knew about the intention to harm a civilian and aided the process of his murder (Ian Sean Feinberg) by passing information to the perpetrators regarding the absence of soldiers in the area. Also, together with his cell, tortured a local resident suspected of collaboration. After he left the scene, the victim was murdered by his two accomplices. On a separate occasion, he intended to murder a local resident suspected of collaboration. Ian Sean Feinberg was born in South Africa and immigrated to Israel after finishing High School. Having qualified in law before his enlistment, he spent five years serving as a lawyer in the Gaza Strip and was later involved professionally with Palestinian economic development as a legal advisor. On April 18, 1993, during a business meeting in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, terrorists burst into the room announcing that they had ‘come to kill the Jew’. They then murdered him with gunshots and an axe. Ian was 30 at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife and three children.
12. Barbach Faiz Rajab Madhat (PFLP. Born 1974, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested in 1994) was sentenced to life imprisonment for, together with his accomplices, stabbing his employer (Moshe Becker) to death. Moshe Beker was born in Poland in 1933 and immigrated to mandate Palestine in 1935. On January 21, 1994, Moshe arrived at his orchard in Rishon L’Tsion to see whether his employee had arrived. He was ambushed there by three terrorists, who had slept on site and waited for him. They attacked him, stabbed him to death with a knife and a pair of pruning shears, and fled. Moshe, 61 at the time of his death, was survived by his wife and four children.
13. Raai Ibrahim Salam Ali (Fatah. Born 1957, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested 1994) was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder – using an axe – of 79 year-old Morris Aizenshtat who was sitting on a park bench in Kfar Saba reading a book at the time.
14. Nashbat Jabar Yusef Mahmed (Born 1961, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested in 1990) was sentenced to 25 years for taking part in a lynching of an IDF soldier, Amnon Pomerantz. He was due to be released on 20/9/2015. Amnon Pomerantz was an electrical engineer and scientist and worked in research and development. On September 20, 1990, Amnon left his home in Havatzelet Hasharon for reserve duty in Gaza. Three hours later, he was brutally murdered by a gang of Palestinian rioters after he took a wrong turn on the way to his base and accidentally entered Al Burj Refugee Camp. After they threw rocks at him, they poured gasoline on his vehicle and ignited it with Amnon inside. It was noted that Nashbat did not express regret for his acts. Amnon was 46 at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife and three children.
15. Mortja Hasin Ghanam Samir (Hamas. Born in 1970, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested 1993) was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his part in the abduction, interrogation, torture and murder of four local residents suspected of collaboration with the authorities – Samir Alsilawi, Khaled Malka, Nasser Akila, and Ali Al Zaabot. Also, he abducted local residents suspected of ‘moral crimes’ for interrogation. His release date was October 28, 2013.
16. Sualha Fazah Ahmed Husseini (Fatah. Born 1973, resident of Judea and Samaria, arrested 1990) was given a life sentence for stabbing Baruch Heizler to death on a bus together with an accomplice and also attempting to murder three additional female passengers. Baruch Heizler – named after his grandfather who was killed by Jordanian shelling of the Old City of Jerusalem during the War of Independence – was 24 when he was stabbed to death whilst travelling on the number 66 bus in Ramat Gan after having missed the ride to his seminary.  Betty Malka, Shai Cohen and Avishag Cohen were injured in the same attack.
17. Ramahi Salah Abdallah Faraj (Fatah. Born in 1966, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested 1992) was given a life term for killing Avraham Kinstler. Also, whilst in Israel without a permit, he broke into a car a stole a gun. While in prison, he tried to obtain a weapon for another prisoner in order to kidnap a soldier. Avraham Kinstler was born in Polish Galicia in 1908 and immigrated to mandate Palestine with his wife. On July 7, 1992, Avraham – who had not retired – went to work in his orchard as usual. There he was ambushed by a terrorist and murdered with a farming implement. Avraham was 84 years old at the time of his death. He was survived by three daughters and six grandchildren.
18. Abu-Sitta Ahmed Sayid Aladin (Fatah. Born 1970, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested 1994) was sentenced to two life terms for killing David Dedi and Chaim Weitzman together with accomplices.
19. Abu-Sitta Taleb Mohammed Ayman (Fatah. Born 1971, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested 1994) was given two life terms for breaking into an apartment in Ramle and murdering two people, David Dedi and Chaim Weitzman together with accomplices. Afterwards, they mutilated the bodies and cut off their ears as proof of the action. David Dadi was born in Tunis and immigrated to Israel as a child, settling in Ramla. On December 31, 1993, David, along with his acquaintance Chaim Weizman, was stabbed to death in his sleep in his flat in Ramla by labourers from Gaza who were working in a neighboring apartment. David was 43 at the time of his death. Chaim Weizman was born in Morocco. His family immigrated to Israel in 1962 and settled in Ramla. On December 31, 1993 – aged 33 – he was stabbed to death in his sleep by terrorists whilst staying at the apartment of his friend David Dadi. He was survived by his son, parents and siblings.
20. Mantsur Omar Abdel Hafiz Asmat (Born in 1976, resident of Judea and Samaria, arrested in 1993) was convicted of accessory to murder and sentenced to 22 years.  He found out during work about the intention of his colleagues to murder a civilian, Chaim Mizrahi, and during the murder, helped the murderers to overpower the victim and after his death, placed the body in the boot of his car. Chaim Mizrachi grew up in Bat Yam and Holon, later moving to Beit El. On Friday, October 29, 1993, he went to buy eggs from an Arab-owned farm near his home, and was met by terrorists who attacked him and fled in his vehicle after wounding him and stuffing him into the car’s trunk. The terrorists murdered Chaim, then burned and abandoned the vehicle north of Ramallah. Chaim was 30 at the time of his death, and was survived by his pregnant wife, his parents, his sisters, and his brother. Half-a-year after his murder, his daughter was born.
21. Asakra Mahmad Ahmed Khaled (Fatah. Born 1972, resident of Judea & Samaria, arrested in 1991) was convicted of the murder of French national Annie Lei in April 1991 and sentenced to life imprisonment. 64 year-old Ms Lei was a tourist visiting Bethlehem and was eating in the restaurant where Asakra worked when he stabbed her to death.
22. Jandiya Yusef Raduan Nahad (Fatah. Born 1973, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested in 1989) was sentenced to 25.5 years’ imprisonment for his part – whilst still a minor – in the murder of 64 year-old Zalman Shlein with his release due on January 13, 2015. Zalman Shlein was born in Poland and as a fifteen year-old boy was forced to escape Nazi persecution by leaving his home and family. He arrived in mandate Palestine in 1947 and settled in Gan Yavne where he married and raised his family, working as a building contractor. In July 1989 he was stabbed and beaten to death by Jandiya and another Arab labourer at a construction site. Jandiya later tried to escape from prison but was caught.
23. Hamdiya Mahmoud Awad Muhammed (Fatah. Born 1972, resident of the Gaza Strip, arrested in 1989) was also convicted of the murder of Zalman Shlein and sentenced to 25.5 years with his release scheduled for 13/1/2015. Like his accomplice, he also tried to escape from prison and was caught.
24. Abdel-Nebi a’Wahab Gamal Jamil (Hamas. Born 1963, resident of Judea & Samaria, arrested in 1992) was sentenced to 21 years’ imprisonment having been convicted of accessory to murder and was due to be released on 14/12/2013. Abdel-Nebi drove the getaway vehicle after a terrorist shooting at the Machpelah Cave in Hebron in October 1992 in which reservist Shmuel Geresh was killed and Ronen Cohen was injured. 32 year-old Shmuel Geresh – the son of Holocaust survivors – left a wife and two children.
25. Ziwad Muhammed Taher Taher (Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Born 1971, resident of Judea & Samaria, arrested 1993) was sentenced to 21 years in prison for his part (together with two others) in the fatal shooting of Avraham Cohen and was scheduled for release on February 5, 2014.
26. Tsabiach Abed Hamed Burhan was arrested in 2001 for the murder of four Palestinians – Jamil Mohammed, Naim Tsaviach, Ayisha Abdallah and Haradi Marwach. 

Who we are

Thanks for visiting our site.

Bereaved Families for Peace and Justice is a group made up of Israelis who have experienced first-hand the loss of a loved one to the barbarism of terrorists. We regard ourselves as non-political.

The group, which brings together people of all ages, all religious persuasions, all parts of the Israeli political spectrum, came into being after the Government of Israel announced its consent to an American proposal to free 104 terrorists from their Israeli prison cells in August 2013. These men are sometimes called pre-Oslo prisoners, though if the intention is that their crimes or their convictions pre-date the Oslo Accords of 1993, the name is inaccurate.

A first group of 26, all of them convicted murderers, were set free on August 13, 2013. They were received in Palestinian Arab society as heroes, as we knew they would. Images of the joyous reception they received are all over the web, here for instance.

While the identities of the killers is well-enough known and reported in the global media, far less attention was paid before, during and since the release of the first 26. Those victims, almost universally faceless, unremembered, unimportant to the process of freeing their murderers, are at the heart of our concern.

We who have suffered the deaths of children, parents, spouses, partners, siblings, know the bitterness of that experience. We know, also, the injustice of viewing the crimes committed by their murderers as somehow lesser crimes, not up to the level of horror of a 'normal' non-terrorist crime. The sense that this is not the moral, just or decent way to view the terrorists and their actions is what motivates us.