No Justice for Terrorist Victims in Judea in 2016

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                     

Dafna Meir, victim of terrorism

A Jewish mother of 6 children, Dafna Meir, was stabbed to death in her own home in front of 3 of her children in the  village of Otniel in Judea by Palestinian terrorists on January 17th, starting a rash of more stabbings of Jews in Judea-Samaria.  This was murder by any definition.  Her 17 year old, Renana,  was able to give the IDF and Shin Bet security force a description of the killer who was captured 2 days later.  It was 16 year old, Morrad Bader Abdullah,  who after stabbing their mother, had then watched movies. He had been hiding out in the Palestinian Arab town of Beit Amra, about 1.8 miles away  " located twelve kilometers southwest of Hebron.  The apple does not fall far from the tree. "Adais’s father said on Tuesday that he was “proud” of his son for carrying out the attack, the news site Walla quoted him as telling Palestinian media outlets. He also said that the soldiers who arrested his son interrogated all members of the family."
                                                                                         

Dafna Meir's children at her funeral

Why in Judea?  Judea is the southern part of ancient Israel which has now been labeled by Jordan as the West Bank.  This is the area that the Palestinians expect to take over and rename as Palestine. Since WWI's end, England had held the mandate for the region for 30 years.  When they left May 14, 1948, Jews living there declared the land as Israel once again which was decided after many meetings with the British and acceptance by the UN.  This acceptance by world order was challenged by the Arabs with a war that turned out to be Israel's War of Independence.  Palestinians have not accepted any peaceful decisions about becoming a state for the past 67 years, and have held their ground to want to drive Israelis into the sea instead.  Even after a gang attack of multiple Arab countries attacking Israel in 1967, with the result that Israel won that battle, have not deterred the Palestinians.  Now they are still trying to scare and drive Israelis out of the land.  Well, Jews were forced out of Israel-Judah in 70 CE with the Roman attack that burned down their Temple.  They're not about to ever leave again.  The land is an integral part of their religious beliefs.  It's even on a  higher level than Washington DC is to the Americans, or Paris is to the French.  The world evidently does not understand this connection.  It's where they were told to live by G-d.  
                                                                     

Meir Family before her death

Religious Jews are the ones who have been moving into Judea and Samaria since 1967, their ancient land that was not available to them before.  As if by the will of G-d, Israel won over an amazing attack on them that no gambler would have bet on.  Land that was theirs originally had been decided to be a part of Israel by the British, only to be given away by them to Abdullah, a royal prince without a nation to rule from Saudi Arabia, even though promised to be a part of the Jewish Homeland.  Then to have that Arab country make the false move of joining his compadres in attacking their good neighbor and losing this extra land was indeed a miracle in itself.  No one thought that the  Arabs still using the name of Palestinians, for Jews were also Palestinians before May 14, 1948, would want to settle down and maintain their own state.  They were an assortment of people who  had wandered in from surrounding Arab and non-Arab countries seeking work from Jews in the late 1800s.  To the Arab countries surrounding Israel, Jews were an anathama to them, Jews among Arabs, and this they could not tolerate!  The Palestinian Arabs were fodder for a fight, used as if pawns in a chess game to chase out the Jews.

Here we have Otniel, a village of 810 people of 130 families that is made up of very religious Jews, Orthodox who follow the rules of Judaism and know their ancient history.  They are thrilled to be living on land their forefathers had tread; lived and died on.  Their religion is coming to life for them by being here.  They are not people who were just suffering from religious persecution, but people who respect the land even more than others.  The problem lies in the rest of the world.  They do not see that Israelis should live in Judea and Samaria but must be saved for the Palestinians to make their own state-minus any Jews!!! They call Otniel an illegal settlement, not even giving it the right to be called a village or town.

  Even the USA, who is made up of many religions and people, thinks that a Palestine must be only Muslims.  After all, the fact that there are already 48 Muslim majority states in the world is not enough.  There must be the 49th for these belligerent people!  Nothing like bringing democracy to the area;  Israel is made up of 6 million Jews and 1.7 million Arabs, a smattering of Christians and others.  Even Bahia is in Israel.  Now, you go to Saudi Arabia and you will find only Muslims.  No Jews are allowed in Muslim countries.
                           
Otniel was established in 1983.  It lies in the southern Judaean Mountains, south of the famous city of Hebron, which itself is just 18 miles south of Jerusalem.  Everything is so close to each other in Israel.  It's a tiny state of 8,000 square miles.  It was in Hebron that Abraham bought from the Hebronites a plot of land, the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron, in which to bury Sarah, his wife and niece who had just died.  Joshua had assigned the city to Caleb, and it became a levitical city and a city of refuge.  King David reigned here first, before moving his capital to Jerusalem.  It's hard to study our Jewish history, read about Hebron and all that happened here and then know that the land is all belonging to Palestine and Jews are not allowed there.  This cannot happen.                                                      
                                                                             

In Otniel is a yeshiva, a religious school usually attended by future rabbis or others who will be experts in their history.  It is a hesder yeshiva headed by 2 rabbis which has an overseas program that attracts Jewish students from Australia and the USA.  The yeshiva itself was under attack in December 2002 when 4 students were killed and 10 wounded in a terrorist attack.  Then in November 21011, Rabbi Dan Martzbach was killed and 2 women wounded when an IDF patrol on alert for suspected terrorists fired on their car as they drove to the Cave of the Patriarchs to pray in the morning.
                                                                     

Shlomit Krigman, terrorist victim

This attack could have spurred on others.  8 days later on January 25th, Shlomit Krigman,23 years old ,  another woman but living in the older town of Beit Horon, was also stabbed to death by 2 Palestinian assailants.  Beit Horon is a town north of Otniel and much larger with a population in 2014 of 1,218.  It's also in Judea.    Started in December of 1977, it lies along the Route 443 between Modi[in and Jerusalem, which is the biblical pass of Beit Horon found in Joshua 10:10.  The population is a mix of secular and Orthodox Jews.  They have a religious elementary school that serves local children as well as those from surrounding villages.  There are also 3 nurseries and a kindergarten, 2 synagogues, a kollel, a mikvah for both women and men, and even a library. "Another woman, 58, was moderately injured in the attack, which took place outside a small market in Beit Horon.  Both attackers, one from nearby Beit Ur al-Tahta, and one from the Ramallah area, were shot and killed by a security guard.  .

                                                                                

Town of Beit Horon, Judea 

Krigman, who had previously served as a group leader for the Bnai Akiva Youth Group in Beit Horon, was spending time with her grandparents in the town when she was attacked, according to a message from the community sent out Tuesday morning.  She died later in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.                           

On January 31st, urther north near Beit El in the Judea and Samaria district,  a Palestinian police officer went terrorist and shot and wounded 3 IDF soldiers at the Focus (checkpoint) leading to Ramallah.  The shooter was also "the driver of the Ramallah district attorney general as well."  He was shot and killed at the scene.  Beit El "Beit El is an Israeli town and local council is located in the Binyamin Region of Judea-Samaria. 

                                                                                 

Beit El

The Orthodox Jewish town is located in the hills north of Jerusalem, east of the Palestinian city of al-Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah. Beit El's  current population is 6,500 people.  It has grown from 2014 when there were 5,991.  This is where " Jacob slept and dreamt of the angels coming up and down a ladder (Genesis 28:19). 

 "In 1970, private Palestinian land of al-Bireh and Dura al-Qar was seized by military order for a military outpost and later on consigned to settlers for the purpose of civilian settlement." Remember, Israel had won the 1967 war and therefore got back land promised to them in the first place.  This was land needed for protection.  

"In 1977, Beit El was established on the "temporarily" requisitioned land. Seventeen families settled nearby the Israel Defense Forces base. Subsequently the community divided into two settlements. Beit El Aleph (Beit El A) was a residential religious community in the southern part of Beit El, populated by residents who worked in the free professions outside the yishuv. Beit El Bet (Beit El B) was settled on the northern hill around the yeshiva center, founded by Ya'akov Katz and Zalman Baruch Melamed,  partly by trespassing on private land and partly on land purchased by the Himnuta company (a subsidiary of JNF-KKL). It includes public buildings and civilian permanent homes and caravans." That was 37 years ago.

Israel disputes the illegal settlement charge on Jews in the (West Bank). " The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. The International Court of Justice advisory ruling (2004) concluded that events that came after the 1967 occupation of the West Bank by Israel, including the Jerusalem Law, Israel's peace treaty with Jordan and the Oslo Accords, did not change the status of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) as occupied territory with Israel as the occupying power." The International Court of Justice is a part of the UN.  The 15 members currently are:

Current Members

President

• Ronny Abraham   (France)

Vice-President

• Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf   (Somalia)

Judges

• Hisashi Owada     (Japan)
• Peter Tomka     (Slovakia)
• Mohamed Bennouna     (Morocco)
• Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade     (Brazil)
• Christopher Greenwood     (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
• Xue Hanqin     (China)
• Joan E. Donoghue     (United States of America)
• Giorgio Gaja     (Italy)
• Julia Sebutinde     (Uganda)
• Dalveer Bhandari     (India)
• Patrick Lipton Robinson     (Jamaica)
• James Richard Crawford     (Australia)
• Kirill Gevorgian     (Russian Federation)

Registrar 

Philippe Couvreur 

(Belgium)

•     Professor Eugene Kontorovich,
•                                                 The International Law Lawyer I most admire
• His new article " shows that under the universal rules that determine the borders 
• of new states, Israel upon its creation have included the West Bank and Gaza. " 
• Update: 11:54am the army medic arrested March 24 after being caught on video shooting a wounded, immobilized Palestinian terrorist in Hebron. and Bernie Sanders sniping about Israel killing 10,000 Palestinians-sniping without checking facts-read 10,000 somethings somewhere...
• Anti-Israel Protesters Crash Jerusalem Mayor Barkat's Talk in San Francisco
  Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters on Wednesday barged into a public lecture by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat at San Francisco State University, shouting slogans and attempting to prevent him from speaking. "Anyone who thinks that calls for violence and incitement will be able to silence us or divert us from our position is mistaken," Barkat said. "We will continue to build, develop and strengthen the State of Israel and within it a united Jerusalem, and we will continue to voice our opinions and our legitimacy when we are invited to do so, even in places where they try to stop us."  (Jerusalem Post)  
• 
  Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/337996/hebron-shooting-makes-israels-top-brass-look-like-our-republican-party/#ixzz45AV7JD9n , http://forward.com/opinion/337996/hebron-shooting-makes-israels-top-brass-look-like-our-republican-party/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_MainList_Title_Position-1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Daily%202016-04-07&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20Monday-Friday                              
• Resource: The Jerusalem Report magazine, Feb. 22, 2016,  page 3, Stabbing Streak
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otniel

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Palestinian-teen-murdered-Dafna-Meir-in-Otniel-stabbing-then-watched-a-movie-445712
http://www.timesofisrael.com/security-forces-capture-palestinian-suspecxt-shin-bet-capture-palestinian-who-stabbed-west-bank-woman-in-her-home/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/security-forces-capture-palestinian-suspecxt-shin-bet-capture-palestinian-who-stabbed-west-bank-woman-in-her-home/
http://www.icj-cij.org/court/index.php?p1=1  Internatonal Court of Justice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beit_Horon
http://www.timesofisrael.com/woman-24-dies-of-wounds-after-stabbing-in-settlement-market/
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.700534
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beit_El
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/profiles/eugenekontorovich/