Thursday, July 16, 2020

Fw:Honenu: Tammuz 5780 July 2020

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BH

Tammuz 5780 July 2020

Shalom Pollack2

Shalom Pollack

Dear Friends and Supporters,
Whether Honenu is assisting defendants, ensuring that terrorists are prosecuted to the full extent of the law, or helping terror victims realize their often denied rights, Honenu is always on call, 24 hours a day. We are in the midst of the Three Weeks before Tisha B'Av, the time of the destruction of the Temple, a time when many people focus on the good deeds they can do, and due to the hardships caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, many people have increased their efforts in this direction.
At the bottom of this letter, Honenu volunteer Shalom Pollack suggests one way to raise awareness and money for the organization, which is funded completely by private donations. Please click here to donate. We need your support to continue providing crucial assistance to those in need of legal counsel.

Below are just a few examples of Honenu's recent cases. To read more about these and other cases, click here.

Rock terror strikes again

Life sentence for terrorist who murdered Avraham Hasno, Hy"d

Honenu appealed, case reopened

State retracts assault indictment

GSS harassment

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Damaged windshield; Photo credit: Courtesy of photographer

Rock terror strikes again

In mid-June, terrorists threw rocks at a Jewish car on Route 458 near the village of al-Mughayyir. Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the driver, sent a letter to the police. From the letter: "The rock directly hit the car's front windshield, shattered it and penetrated the vehicle. Fortunately the horrific incident ended without bodily injury and my client succeeded in driving, while covered in glass shards, to Kochav HaShahar." See here for a similar incident from May.
The case, has been closed because police claim that the "perpetrator is unknown", even though the driver was informed by security forces that suspects had been apprehended. Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the driver whose car was damaged as part of Honeu's campaign against rock terror: "Rock attacks are terror attacks in every way. It is expected that the police and other security forces would use all available means to apprehend, neutralize and bring terrorists to trial. We demand that the incident be handled as if the terrorists had achieved their goal and the worst outcome possible had occurred."

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Hasno, Hy"d, and his grandson; Photo credit: Courtesy of the family

Life sentence for terrorist who murdered Avraham Hasno, Hy"d

The Military Court in Yehuda sentenced Sahban al-Titi, the terrorist who murdered Avraham Hasno, Hy"d near the al-Fawwar Junction in the area of Hevron on October 20, 2015, to life imprisonment. When Hasno exited his car to examine damage from a barrage of rocks thrown at his car, he was run over by al-Titi, who fled the scene. Al-Titi was initially charged only with manslaughter. After a determined protest by the Hasno family, the Military Court in Yehuda convicted the terrorist of intentionally causing death, the equivalent in a military court to murder.
Avraham's daughter, Leah, expressed how the family has been handling their loss: "What does one feel … when one's family collapses into fragments of pain, of uncertainty… The pain still shatters my heart when I see my son [Pe'er Avraham Hasno] asleep with a photograph of his grandfather, four and half years later.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the family as victims of terror: "The terrorist took advantage of an opportunity to murder a Jew. We ask the court to penalize terrorists with the most stringent penalty possible in order to prevent a situation in which every Jew turns into a potential target for an incidental murder."

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Scene of attack, from the appeal

Honenu appealed, case reopened

In an incident in the summer of 2019, as two hassidic youths were walking towards the Western Wall, a group of Arabs standing near the City of David Visitors' Center attacked and beat them. Despite video clips from security cameras at the site which documented the attack and security guards who witnessed it, the case was closed. The case was recently reopened after Honenu Attorney Bleicher filed an appeal.
Bleicher: "The antisemitic assailants are wandering around freely due to failures in the investigation, despite the documentation and the witnesses. Only recently we witnessed in Hevron a dragnet involving dozens of policemen and detectives and unrestrained detentions of minors who were suspected of involvement with a documented altercation. Where are the law enforcement agents when Jews are seriously assaulted in antisemitic attacks?"
See examples of some other antisemitic incidents here and here.

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General Security Service emblem

Veiled threats in GSS harassment

In mid June, a Jerusalem yeshiva student received a phone call from a GSS agent who employed various tactics in an unsuccessful attempt to convince him to meet. The caller initially presented himself as the official "in charge of the Temple Mount and the Old City [of Jerusalem]," and later in the conversation identified himself as "Banai".
One of Banai's veiled threats was worded: "This isn't an interrogation and you're not accused of anything. It's a half an hour about a security issue that's important for me to tell you, before there are any consequences to this security issue. I don't want to talk about it much over the phone."
Honenu: "The Jewish Department of the GSS has not stopped harassing and threatening innocent citizens. In the conversation, the GSS agent stressed that the man whom he called was not suspected of anything and despite that he threatened him with oblique threats. See here and here for related stories.

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Kerem Shalom, screenshot; Video credit: Investigative file

State retracts assault indictment

In the summer of 2019, an incident occurred at the Kerem Shalom goods crossing, during which a truck driver approached a gathering of youths, waving a large object, which seemed to be a knife, in a threatening manner. B. quickly exited his car, ran towards the disturbance and tried to stop the truck driver by hitting him twice with the pole of a flag that one of the youths in the gathering was holding. B. was indicted for a minor degree of assault.
Honenu Attorney Moshe Poleski stated that when the head of the prosecuting team examined the case file, she understood immediately that there were no grounds for filing the indictment, "if only for the fact that the truck driver who had caused the entire incident had not been indicted, and that is even without examining the claim of self-defense by the defendant. Better late than never, but it is expected that an indictment would be filed only after thorough examination of the evidence and not in haste, which frequently leads to defendants being brought to trial through no fault of their own."
See here for more details.

Honenu pushka

Message from a loyal supporter

Shalom uvracha,
My name is Shalom Pollack, a volunteer with Honenu.
Bezrat Hashem, I have succeeded in collecting thousands of shekels for Honenu simply by filling Honenu pushkas (charity boxes) in synagogue.
Each morning, I go around with the pushka during the repetition of the Amida prayer and give everyone the opportunity to put something in the pushka.
Not everyone gives and not everyone appreciates Honenu for whatever reason. Some give me a disapproving look but it doesn't matter because many are more than willing to help Honenu and are grateful for the opportunity. The results are wonderful.
I turn to you as one who cares about Honenu to do the same as I do. I will be happy to discuss this with you.
Send Honenu an email and they will send out a charity box for you. In order to continue helping Honenu do their holy work, people like you are needed. You can make a difference and do a great mitzva. Please be in contact with your ideas and suggestions.
Bvracha
Shalom Pollack
shalompollack613@gmail.com
052-235-2724

Above are descriptions of some of Honenu's work. We thank Shalom Pollack for all his help to Honenu and for describing just one way in which you can help.

For more information about these and other cases click here. Thank you so much for being our partner in helping those in need. Click here to donate.

If you would like to receive more frequent updates please send an email to us with the word "alerts" in the subject line. Please be in touch with questions and comments.

 
 
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Fwd: Honenu: Letter to PM NETANYAHU from SHMUEL (ZANGY) MEIDAD (HONENU)

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Following is the translation of a letter which Shmuel Meidad (Zangy) , head of Honenu, sent to PM Netanyahu the Shabak arrested a few hilltop youth under administrative detention and tortured them over a week. Many of us thought that the Shabak would cease torturing Jewish youth after the Duma horror,  but unfortunately, we were wrong. 
Below is the translation of the letter Zangy sent to PM Netanyahu. 
Please disseminate it to people, organizations, and social media. 
The more this evil is publicized, the greater the chance the government will take some steps to stop it. 
The imprisonment of Jewish youth and torture under administrative detention is one of the greatest embarassments today to 
the State of Israel.  


Jan 12, 2020 טו' טבת תש"פ

מנכ"ל חוננו שמואל זנגי לנתניהו: עצור את חקירות הנערים בשב"כ


HEAD OF OF HONENU, SHMUEL ZANGY, TO PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: 
STOP THE INTERROGATION OF YOUTH BY THE SHABAK!!!

The head of Honenu, Shmuel Meidad, recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu stating:" You have personally learned the extent of the abuse in our legal system. It is up to you to put an end to this great evil...."  

שמואל מידד (זנגי)


 

Last week, Honenu CEO Shmuel Meidad (Zangy) sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, asking about the fate of a number of Jewish youth being detained by the GSS (Shabak)

 

The GSS recently arrested a number of young Jews  without informing them of the charges against them and preventing them from meeting with legal counsel. They were suspected of causing harm to Arab property. Honenu asserted that these youngsters, some under 18, were interrogated under harsh conditions at GSS facilities.  

 At first, the youth were forbidden to meet with lawyers, and it emerged that they were subjected to aggressive and violent interrogations. 

 In his letter to Netanyahu, Meidad wrote as follows: "In recent developments in your own life, you have learned firsthand how pernicious and brutal our law enforcement system can be. You yourself experienced and continue to experience the results a system which selectively targets and persecutes a specific person or a segment of our population due to hostility against their appearance or philosophical outlook. This persecution is legalized by categorizing the unpopular differences in political or religious outlook as a criminal offense.     

"There is unfortunately nothing new in this system to me, as I have been accompanying civilians and soldiers to GSS and police investigations for years. The democratic rights of activists are frequently violated and rudely abused by the Shabak and the police. Once a file is categorized as a 'Nationalist Crime' -- those under investigation can forget about having their dignity and fundamental rights respected," Meidad added.

 "We hoped that the harsh criticism of the courts against the GSS torture of Jewish youth following the Duma and the Dormition cases case would lead to change. But unfortunately, we were working under an illusion. The current case involves youth being investigated solely for property crimes. This has not prevented the GSS from treating them like dangerous "ticking bomb" terrorists. They were prohibited from meeting with an attorney; the interrogations were also conducted on Shabbat, with the goal of deliberately trampling their religious beliefs. When the youths were finally permitted to meet with lawyers, they reported serious violations of their rights in the interrogation rooms.

 "The court was also shocked to hear about the excessive length of the interrogations. Judge Rivlin wrote in her decision: 'A situation where a suspect is deprived of sleep and taken out of his cell for interrogations in the middle of the night is invalid. I find no justification for this kind of abusive investigation.'"

Meidad demands that Netanyahu intervene on the issue. "As someone who is directly responsible for the Shabak, I appeal to you: remove the evil from between your eyes. You yourself are complaining day and night of selective victimization; of illegal forms of interrogation and the trampling of your and your family's rights. First clean out the stables for which you are responsible.

"The Shabak systematically violates every norm, every fundamental right of certain classes of defendants (i.e. hilltop youth). All this, while the Shabak ignores hundreds of stone-throwing incidents on Jews in Judea and Samaria roads each week, allowing the perpetrators to go free.

"As prime minister, you are responsible for both the Shabak and the police, and therefore, you are solely responsible for the policy that determines who will investigate such cases.  It is in your hand as soon as today to act to correct the injustices that continue at this very moment," Meidad concluded his letter.

_____

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Fw: Honenu: Zoom meeting with Orian Ben Uliel This Thursday,

 

Join us for a Zoom meeting

with

Orian Ben Uliel,

the wife of Amiram,

an innocent man sentenced to three life sentences in the Duma trial based on his confessions extracted under torture by his interrogators.

Orian Ben Uliel

Orian Ben Uliel

The Zoom meeting will take place this Thursday, 8 pm Jerusalem time, (1 pm NY time), For those who wish to participate, please reply to this message and a link will be sent to you on Wednesday.
Please submit your questions by email here.

BenUliel2

Amiel Ben Uliel

On May 18, Amiram Ben Uliel was convicted of the murder of three members of the Dawabshe family in the July 2015 arson attack in Kfar Duma. Orian, Ben Uliel's wife, interrupted the deliberation and called out to the panel of judges, "You have imprisoned an innocent man! The case is full of holes. You have convicted an innocent man!"

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Screenshot: Graffiti at the scene; Video credit: Inouim B'Mishpat Duma

For more details about the case see "Exposing the Duma Blood Libel":
Part 1 focuses on the irregularities in the investigation of the case.
Part 2 focuses on the confession extracted from Ben Uliel under extreme duress during interrogation.
Part 3 focuses on the graffiti found at the scene, which an expert psychologist and graphologist determined does not match Ben Uliel's handwriting, and was written by two different people.
Part 4 focuses on the problematic reenactment of the crime by Ben Uliel, who was guided by officers and interrogators who knew details of the investigation from close up.

Help Honenu fight biased investigations and unjust trials in Israel; PARTNER with us.

 
 
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