I am not in the habit of asking ‘what if’ questions. Once you go down that road, the possibilities are endless. There would be no such thing as convicting anyone of a crime no matter how serious. What if..(for example) an admitted mass murderer sentenced to life imprisonment is actually innocent? What if his confession was coerced by torture - having denied guilt until then?
That question is being asked about an extremist religious Zionist who was sentenced to life in prison after he admitted killing a Palestinian family 8 years ago via arson.
The headlines were shocking to all, regardless of their political views. As VIN reminded us in a recent article. A house in the Samarian village of Duma was torched. 2 Palestinians who were part of the Dawabshe clan were killed in that fire. Not too long after that, their seriously injured son died. A horrible story!
A suspect soon surfaced, arrested, and interrogated. His name was Amiram Ben-Uliel, an extremist religious Zionist settler. He claimed innocence during that interrogation but he mentioned details about the crime that were not released to the public. Israel’s Shin Bet (an Israeli Security Service comparable to the FBI) received permission from the Supreme Court to try and torture a confession out of him.
They succeeded. He confessed to the crime and 36 hours later - before a judge and with his torturers present, he confessed again in court. The court accepted the confession and sentenced him to life in prison.
It seemed like a open and shut case to me back then. The fact that an extremist settler might go to such extremes was not all that far-fetched based on a variety of violent incidents against Palestinians in the past – and ongoing.
To be absolutely clear, I have no sympathy for religious Zionist extremists that carry out price tag raids and revenge pogroms against innocent Palestinians. They are the scum of the earth and disgust me. I have said this before but it is worth repeating. The kind of people whose near messianic fervorin pursuit of settling all the land of Israel - incite anger and violence against the Jewish people are beneath contempt. If I had my way, I would expel them all from living anywhere in Yehuda and Shomorn (The West Bank) except for maybe long established cities and towns like Maale Adumim and Efrat.
I have absolutely no mercy on people that commit atrocities against innocent people. Especially when they do it in the name of Judaism. Just because they place high priority on the size of the Kipa’ and the length of their Peyos doesn’t make them any more religious than their ideological opposites, Neturei Karta. Both of which are the antithesis of Judaism.
Their fervent misinterpretation or misapplication of biblical principles makes them moral idiots as far as I am concerned - and extremely dangerous ones at that.
But what if Amiram Ben- Uliel is actually innocent of the crime and confessed only because he wanted the torture to end? This is one of the reasons given by those who oppose torturing enemy captives to get information out of them.
Most people – even ideologues like Ben-Uliel will say whatever you want them to say to get the torture to end. That is why a tortured confession is not accepted in a court of law even in Israel. The only reason it was this time is because he repeated his confession a day and a half after being tortured.
His defenders have been claiming all along that the 3 victims of the Dawabshe clan that were killed was the result of an internal Palestinian feud between clans. And they cite some evidence toward that theory. Even though it remains unconvincing to just about anyone outside of his supporters.
That said, if he is indeed innocent of the crime, he ought not be punished with life imprisonment just because of his political beliefs. no matter how abhorent they may be. If he didn’t do the crime, he ought not do the time.
I am not saying that Ben-Uliel should be released from custody. He might very well be guilty of the crime based on pre torture preliminary evidence. But I do think it is worth another look since his sentence was based on a tortured confession. Does that in any way constitute reasonable doubt? I don’t know. But taking another look at his conviction seems to be gaining currency among both right wing and left wing advocates.
Juctice, Justice shall you pursue says the Torah. Has justice been fully served here? I honestly don’t know. But regardless of Ben Uliel’s despicable politics, I would hate to see an innocent man serving a life sentence for something he did not do.