Arafat Irfaiya, Ori Ansbacher’s murderer, brought to court. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
X ![]()
Dear Reader,
As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
As one of our loyal readers, we ask you to be our partner.
For $5 a month you will receive access to the following:
- A user experience almost completely free of ads
- Access to our Premium Section
- Content from the award-winning Jerusalem Report and our monthly magazine to learn Hebrew – Ivrit
- A brand new ePaper featuring the daily newspaper as it appears in print in Israel
Help us grow and continue telling Israel’s story to the world.
Thank you,
Ronit Hasin-Hochman, CEO, Jerusalem Post Group
Yaakov Katz, Editor-in-Chief
UPGRADE YOUR JPOST EXPERIENCE FOR 5$ PER MONTH Show me later
Israel’s decision to label the murder of Ori Ansbacher as a terrorist attack will enable the family of her murderer, Arafat Irfaiya, to apply for financial aid from the Palestinian Authority or other Palestinian groups, a PA official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for the February 7 rape and murder of Ansbacher in Jerusalem. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which often praise terrorist attacks against Israelis, have refrained from commenting on the case of Irfaiya.
The official criticized the Israeli decision and claimed that the PA does not believe that the rape and murder of Ansbacher was “nationalistically motivated.” The PA, he said, believes that this was a criminal murder.
Noting that Irfaiya was not affiliated with any Palestinian group, the official said that by labeling him as a terrorist, Israel has “turned a criminal into a freedom fighter.”
According to the official, Irfaiya’s family will now use the Israeli decision as an excuse to demand that he be added to the list of Palestinian security prisoners who are entitled to a monthly salary from the PA or any other Palestinian group.
“This will not happen,” the official told the Post. “As far as we’re concerned, this was not a nationalistically motivated attack, even if Irfaiya and Israel are trying to make it look like that.”
A source in the Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission in Ramallah said on Thursday that despite the Israeli announcement, his group will not endorse Irfaiya as a “security prisoner.” The source also expressed doubt that Palestinian security prisoners would “welcome” the suspected rapist and murderer. The commission, he added, does not accept the Israeli version that Irfaiya committed his crime out of a “nationalistic motivation.”
Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, a nongovernmental organization and media watchdog that studies Palestinian society, said the PA was facing an absurd “ethical dilemma” over the case of Irfaiya.
“The PA supports and pays a salary to anyone who is imprisoned for ‘fighting the occupation,’” Marcus noted. “This means that the PA pays a salary to anyone who murders an Israeli in a terrorist attack from the day of his/her arrest, and that the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club provides legal representation to the terrorist in the Israeli court system. However, the PA considers rape a ‘criminal act’ and not a ‘nationalistic act,’ and therefore a rapist is not entitled to any support – legally or financially.”
Marcus, in a report titled “The gruesome Palestinian ‘ethical dilemma,’” said that if the PA recognizes the murderer as having acted out of nationalistic motivation, they will be paying him at least NIS 1,400 each month.
Qadoura Fares, director of the Prisoners’ Club, told Haaretz that Irfaiya’s family has not asked his group for any legal aid.
“If there will be such a request, we will consider it and send a defense lawyer to review his claims,” he said. “If it turns out there really was a sexual assault, we will pass on representation. That would make the case a criminal one, as far as we’re concerned, and we object to anyone committing a criminal offense trying to pass it off as a nationalistic act.”
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>
Comments are closed.