On Monday, 25 Kislev, Uri Kirshenbaum and Michael Fuah, the administrators of the Facebook page “Duma Blood Libel” will distribute a new booklet under the name “The Duma Blood Libel: How to Frame Someone in the State of Israel”. The booklet details how Amiram Ben Uliel and A., the minor in the Kfar Duma arson incident case, have been framed for the incident and how an unreliable, fabricated story formed the basis for their indictment. Ben Uliel is charged with carrying out the arson itself and A. is charged with assisting him in planning the arson, but not with participating in the incident.

The summary of the booklet mentions shocking crimes which were “solved”, but later the investigating authorities admitted that there had been a mistake. Among the examples are the “Ma’atz Gang” from the 1970’s, who sat in jail for years, through no fault of their own, and the August 2009 murders in a Tel Aviv youth bar by the name “Bar Noar” which were erroneously attributed to several individuals.

All translations of the booklet in this item are by Honenu.
From the summary of the booklet: “The public pressure which the security and political systems have been under since the arson incident in Duma [July 31, 2015] led the Shin Bet to announce that the murder had been solved quickly, no matter what. This reality led to hasty, negligent and irresponsible treatment by the investigating authorities of the interrogated detainees and a false portrayal to the public that the arson case had been solved, when at the time the Shin Bet interrogators themselves knew that there was absolutely no logic to the indictment.”

The booklet reveals that the confession extracted from Amiram under duress is in fact a repetition of the testimony given by A. while under duress, which was read to Amiram by his interrogators. This testimony is brought in the indictment. The booklet states that the reliability of such a confession is non-existent.

The booklet also relates that after Ben Uliel gave his confession, which is identical to that of A. and on which the indictment is based, the Shin Bet interrogators continued to torture him. From the booklet: “It is obvious to the Shin Bet that the confession by Amiram [Ben Uliel] is fabricated. The Shin Bet understood already in real time that the confessions did not reflect the facts of what had happened during the Duma arson incident.”

Additionally, the booklet mentions that residents of Kfar Duma who were interviewed by news media as eye witnesses to the arson said that there were at least two people who carried out the arson, and that two people verified the deaths in the arson (“dead checking”). This description differs from the testimony that Ben Uliel gave, according to which he entered the village alone and immediately after the arson fled the scene.

Another point stressed in the booklet is that in a news item from the Maariv newspaper on January 3, 2016, after the indictment was filed, a source from the GSS admitted that, “It is likely that the murder in Duma has not been completely solved.”

Uri Kirshenbaum and Michael Fuah, the administrators of the Facebook page, “Duma Blood Libel”, and the writers of the booklet, stated that, “In the trial within a trial a bit of the Duma Blood Libel began to be revealed. The time has come for the public to be exposed to the absurdities of this case, and to understand that an innocent citizen is liable to rot in prison in order to help the Shin Bet cover up their failings.

“The responsibility to work towards the release of Amiram rests on our shoulders, and we believe that, G-d willing, we can make it happen,” they added.

The accompanying photo shows the first page of the booklet.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Honenu)