(Flash 90)

The Almagor Terror Victims Association has called for the authorities summarily to reject the newly released report of the self-described Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which attacks the police for taking measures against Arab youths responsible for the now prevalent terrorist attacks in eastern Jerusalem. These attacks are especially common in the case of visitors to the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

In the report, ACRI says that Arabs living in areas beyond the security fence complain that police do not enforce the law in their neighborhoods, and that “anti-riot measures are often used excessively in the center of crowded neighborhoods.” In addition, the report takes issue with the police for the arrest and interrogation of minors who engage in terrorism.

However, Alamgor says, the report fails to offer a practical way to stop the terrorism short of these means. “Thus the Association for Civil Rights in Israel ironically prefers to maintain a purported civil right not to be held responsible for acts of terrorism over the overriding civil right of not being murdered or seriously maimed,” the Almagor response says.



Israeli officials believe that the PA itself is engineering the throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails at Jews in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, purposely using minors in order to attempt to circumvent the Israeli legal system, which in non-terrorism cases deals leniently with minors. Similarly, the report says, Fatah, Hamas, and other factions have a history of sending minors to carry out terrorist attacks at Israeli checkpoints, and terrorists targeted by the IDF commonly surround themselves with women and children.



Almagor CEO Meir Indor, who was injured in an attack in the area, said, “Children and youths are used purposefully for these attacks in a cynical attempt to escape the punishment due terrorists. This is not juvenile delinquency―this is organized terrorism. The PLO and its associates will not stop abusing their children by using them for attacks on Jews unless Israel makes clear that this will not pay.



“Unfortunately, minors who have grown up in Judea, Gaza, and Samaria under Arafat and Abbas are all too willing to be abused in this way. Since Israel handed control of these areas to the PLO in 1994, their schools, media, and mosques have been used to rear a generation that rejects peace and murderously hates Jews,” Indor added.

(Uriah Heller)

The Almagor organization for victims of terrorism criticized IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz on Sunday over Gantz’s reaction to findings regarding the murder of Ben Yosef Livnat last month at the hands of Palestinian Authority police officers.

“The Chief of Staff’s words are an attempt to ‘clean up’ the murder of Livnat and make it seem less severe,” the group accused. Targeting Gantz for his statement that the shooting does not appear to have been pre-planned, Almagor said in a statement, “Victims of terrorism and their families do not care if the terrorist attack was pre-planned or carried out in a fit of sudden Palestinian excitement at the sight of easy prey like unarmed, defenseless hassidic Jews coming to pray at a Jewish tomb.”

“The light finger on the trigger in firing on Jewish worshipers – unplanned – just goes to show who Israel’s partners are on the Palestinian side,” the statement continued.

Gantz’s decision not to label Livnat’s slaying a terrorist attack “stems from an attempt to protect the Palestinian partners, who got the IDF’s permission to carry weapons,” it added.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak was criticized as well. “The fact that the IDF did not request the arrest and extradition of the murderers shows that something is very rotten in Barak’s kingdom,” said Almagor. The group called to demand the killers’ arrest, and threatened to appeal to the Supreme Court in the matter.

Barak came under criticism last week when he blocked MKs from visiting Joseph’s Tomb due to Arab threats. The visit was to have been the first to take place during daylight hours in more than a decade.

‘Fight the Uniformed Terrorists’

MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) responded to the IDF’s findings regarding the shooting by calling to end Israel’s cooperation with the PA police.

“The investigation demands the conclusion that any cooperation with the Palestinian police is support for a terrorist group,” he said. “The IDF must fight terrorists in uniform, not imagine that it can cooperate with them.”

Almagor states,“The IDF investigation attempts to launder the murder of Livnat, and reduce its severity. The victims and their families do not care if the murderous attack was premeditated or if it was an act of spontaneous Palestinian bloodthirst towards defenseless Jews who came to pray. The loose trigger finger demonstrates who the Palestinian partner truly is. The IDF refuses to define the murder of Livnat as a terrorist attack, in order to protect the partners’ IDF-approved permit to bear arms.

Almagor demands that the IDF require the PA to apprehend and extradite the murderers, and not avoid bringing them to justice.

(Uriah Heller)

The Ministry of Defense has decided to classify Ben Yosef Livnat, who was gunned down at the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem, as a terror victim.

Reshet Bet (Channel 2) state-run radio reported Thursday that the decision follows the determination by the IDF that he Palestinian Authority policemen who killed Livnat were not in any danger at the time. The PA inquiry into the incident found that the men who shot at Livnat acted in breach of the protocol for opening fire.

The IDF finding was handed over to the Minister of Defense and to the Chief of Staff, who approved it. The commander of the IDF’s Samaria Brigade said in closed conversations that Livnat was murdered and that the police who fired at him and the group of yeshiva students with whom Livnat had come to the tomb, intended to kill Jews.

The commander also noted in his assessment that the event – along with others – is a warning light regarding the future cooperation with PA police.

PA police, in and out of uniform, have a long history of carrying out terror attacks against Jews. This fact, along with the fact that the PA is run by terrorist organizations Fatah and Hamas, has led many to see them as a terrorist force in disguise, rather than a legitimate police force.

The Almagor Terror Victims Association demanded that Interior Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich issue an arrest warrant for the PA police officers who murdered Ben-Yosef Livnat and call for their extradition, following publication of the findings.

“Until they are extradited, we demand an end to all cooperation with the Palestinian police and the Palestinian Authority,” said a source at Almagor. “According to information that we have obtained, in the case of Ben-Yosef Livnat, the guilty police officers are not even in prison, but moving freely in the Shechem (Nablus) area.”

The IDF rejected at the last minute Tuesday a plan by Knesset members to conduct a prayer session at the Tomb of Joseph. The MKs wanted to mark the thirtieth day since the murder of Livnat, but the army feared a conflagration after the PA threatened violence.

Following IDF investigation of the murder of Ben-Yosef Livnat by PA officers at Joseph’s tomb, Terrorist Victims Organization Almagor demands Police Minister issue a warrant for their arrest, as well as an extradition request against them.

The demand was presented to the ministers today, along with photos from the last memorial service.

“We call to Israel to cease cooperation with the Palestinian Police and the PA until the extradition,” says Almagor. “Further cooperation should be stopped until the PA demonstrates that it honors the extradition agreements signed with them as a basis for their activity in Judea and Samaria.”

Almagor accuses the PA of harboring murderers with false arrests and a ‘revolving door’ policy.

“According to our information, the murderers of Ben-Yosef Livnat z’l are not imprisoned and are walking free in Shechem”, says Almagor.

The Almagor Terror Victims Association responded on Wednesday to remarks by former chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, who said that Israel does not know where Gilad Shalit is.

“Any price that Ashkenazi is willing to pay for Shalit should be reasonable in that others should not pay the price for his release,” the organization said in a statement, adding that “the price that Hamas requires now was demanded using wisdom and cunning, and if we pay it terrorists and murderers will be released, and many soldiers and civilians will pay with their lives – something we have learned from our past experiences.”

Almagor called on the IDF to publish the conclusions of the committee that was established to determine what a reasonable price would be for such deals. The conclusions of the committee have yet to be made public despite the fact that it has completed its work.

(Israel news photo)

Rabbi Uri Dasberg, one of three casualties of a fatal crash Tuesday, was buried Wednesday and leaves behind two grandchildren, whose mother and father were killed in a terrorist attack.

Rabbi Dasberg, 65, of Alon Shvut, Yocheved Altshuler, 55, of Elazar and Elana Olach, 55, of Efrat, were killed when Dasberg’s car apparently veered from its lane on Highway 60 south of Jerusalem, between Neve Daniel and Elazar, and was rammed by a truck, hitting another car.

He and his wife Yehudit raised the two infant children of Yaron and Effie Ungar, who were orphaned when their parents were gunned down by Arab terrorists in 1996 while driving near Beit Shemesh.

Effie. the daughter of the Dasbergs, a graduate of Emunah College of Art and Technology in Jerusalem, was already known at her young age as the creator of a newspaper cartoon series for children. It was based on her toddler son Dvir’s adventures and the series were published posthumously by her parents in several books which became household words for Israeli children.

Rabbi Yisrael Rosen of the Tzomet Institute that pioneers in halakhic solutions for technological problems, said that he and Rabbi Dasberg, who headed the Alon Shvut institute with him, ”walked hand in hand for 35 years” and had worked together since the founding of Tzomet. Rabbi Dasberg also edited a weekly Torah booklet that is distributed in synagogues all over Israel.

“He was a man of great kindness and as an editor of the Talmudic Encyclopedia, was perhaps one of the best editors of our generation.”

Rabbi Dasberg was so modest that he eschewed the title of “rabbi” despite his having been ordained as such at the Mercaz HaRav and Kerem b’Yavneh yeshivas, Rabbi Rosen added.

Almagor, the Association of Terror Victims, published the following message:

The activists and members of the Almagor Terror Victims Association are shocked by the death of the esteemed Rabbi Uri Dasberg (“Reb Uri”) and cry with his family and friends over the sudden loss. Rabbi Dasberg’s past and present students in Israel and in the Diaspora, those who studied in his presence and those who listened to his words from afar, mourn this very dear man, who dealt warmly with all; whose modesty was as great as his wisdom; who was so dedicated to his wife, children, and grandchildren; a great sage who accepted the afflictions that he and his wife bore—the death of his daughter and son-in-law—with love, in the spirit of the greatest ancients who most excelled in their reverence of God.

In addition to being a great scholar, secretary of the Talmudic Encylcopedia project, and editor of Techumin, Reb Uri fought with dedication for his people against terrorism and evil, and worked forcefully and unflinchingly with his wife, Yehudit, to maintain the dignity of Israel, in activism throughout our country, in private meetings, at public gatherings, and through educating his children by example. His dedication to the nation of Israel was exceptional and came hand-in-hand with his great store of Torah scholarship.

We mourn his loss.

(Flash 90)

Meir Indor, chairman of the Almagor terror victims’ organization, is vowing to “take off his kid gloves” and fight the family of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, following a provocation by the Shalits on Independence Day.
Yoel Shalit, Gilad’s brother, and his girlfriend, Yaara Vinkler, interrupted the traditional torch lighting ceremony at Har Herzl that kicked off the Independence Day celebration, and received extensive air time on the television and radio stations that covered the event. Yoel Shalit held up a sign that said—”my father is a bereaved brother, I do not want to become one too.”

Indor said that the latest protest by the Shalit family was an act of desecration. “We, the wounded ones, and the bereaved families, also have many complaints about the mistakes that brought about the injury and death of many. Israel’s governments released terrorists who then caused the murder of Jews. In the past, we thought several times about protesting during the Remembrance Day for Terror Victims ceremonies, but we preferred to avoid such an act, because in these ceremonies there are lines one should not cross.”

The highly sympathetic press coverage that the Shalit protest received reflects an ambition on the part of the press to topple the Netanyahu government, Indor said. “We know that Channel 2 equipped the protesters with an open microphone and connected them to the console in advance, We will turn to the Knesset committees and to the Press Council in order to discuss this grave matter. Their broadcast licenses should be revoked.”

Indor announced his group’s intention to renew the protest vigil opposite the Shalits’ protest tent in Jerusalem. “This is a political struggle by a well-oiled staff sponsored by leftist elements,” he explained. “They have become an existential threat on the State of Israel. If, G-d forbid, the government gives in to them and releases terrorists, we can expect numerous additional cases of bereavement.”

The Shalits have threatened to take the Netanyahu government to court if the Prime Minister does not immediately pressure the PA to release their son. They turned to Abbas for help now that Fatah has made a unity pact with Hamas, turning freeing Schalit into a test case of Abbas’ real intentions.

Bereaved parents who are members of the Almagor Terror Victims Organization announced on Tuesday that they intend to file a complaint with the Israel Press Council against Channel 2, after learning that one of their reporters accompanied Yoel Shalit on Monday, from the afternoon hours until after he disrupted the torch lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

The parents also announced that in light of Monday’s incident, they intend to resume taking action against the campaign to free Gilad Shalit, whose members are calling to release hundreds of terrorists as part of a deal to free the soldier.

(Flash 90)

The Almagor Terror Victims Association issues a message for Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Terrorism Victims: “Don’t Free Terrorists; Let the Enemy Pay.”

The organization issued the following message:

“We, who have sacrificed our loved ones and who have been wounded, and who bear the price of the State of Israel’s existence day in and day out, would like to express the following thoughts that irk our hearts on this holy day.

“The Israeli public is under attack from foreign elements who are working to strip our security forces of the ability to act… Many countries, especially in Europe, did not learn from history; they failed to prevent the Holocaust, and now they are trying to tie the IDF’s hands from defending Israel from Hizbullah, Hamas and Iran. Israel’s leaders must not be deterred by them! The primary obligation of the Government of Israel is to protect the nation.

“Israel must re-evaluate its relations with the ‘Palestinian Authority.’ The collapse of regimes in the region, and Egyptian government statements in favor of abrogating the agreements with Israel, show how unstable are our agreements with our neighbors. The joining up of Hamas with Fatah shows that the army of the PA, which was built with Israel’s consent, is liable to fall under Hamas control – as occurred in Gaza – and its weapons will be pointed at us, as occurred in the early 2000’s.

“We must not cave in and release terrorists, and certainly not murderers. The release of terrorists strikes a blow against justice, causes inequality before the law, rewards terrorism, and harms Israel’s deterrence capacity. We must bring Gilad Shalit back home – but the price must be paid by the enemy, and not by the citizens of Israel.

“We demand the following: Family visits to imprisoned terrorists must be reduced, and their preferential treatment must be downgraded; Hamas leaders in Gaza must be caught and arrested, and until then they must not be allowed to fly; money transfers to Gaza must be stopped.”

The Almagor organization for victims of terrorism has asked the attorney general to open a criminal investigation into three Arab Members of Knesset who are in Egypt to attend a ceremony for the reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas. The three have broken a law against showing support for terrorism, Almagor argued.

“Public support for unity with a terrorist entity is the height of expressing support for that entity,” the group said.

The Almagor umbrella group of terror-victim organizations expressed its congratulations to the United States on Monday for eliminating arch-terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Almagor cited the American military and intelligence systems for carrying out the operations and President Barack Obama for giving them the green light.

A statement by Almagor read, “Thus the U.S. sent a clear message to the heads of terror organizations that there is justice and there is a judge, and those who lead and carry out terror against innocent civilians – even if they are not the ones pulling the trigger—become a target of the whole free world protecting its citizens.”