THE DORMITION Abbey on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion. (photo credit: reuters)
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
In a dramatic reversal, the state prosecution dropped its cases against Yinon Reuveni and a Jewish minor for arson of the Dormition Abbey in February 2016.
The decision could cause tremendous upheaval in the future of how the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) probes Jewish terror cases.
The second defendant’s name is under gag order as he was a minor at the time of the alleged incident.
The stunning reversal comes after a blockbuster ruling by the Lod District Court in January nixing the confession of the Jewish minor for having perpetrated the Dormition Abbey arson on the grounds that the confession was coerced.
Lawyer Itamar Ben Gvir proclaimed victory over law enforcement and slammed what he said were coercive tactics in which undercover agents were used against the minor while in detention in Acre.
According to Ben Gvir, the undercover agents posing as prisoners threatened the minor, tried to starve him and otherwise went beyond permitted trickery tactics to obtain confessions.
The state prosecution had said in January that it was evaluating its options, which could have included an appeal, but ultimately decided to withdraw the indictment entirely citing a lack of other evidence to obtain a conviction.
The minor was arrested as part of a wave of arrests of Jewish activists following the July 2015 Duma murders of the Palestinian Dawabshe family.
According to the now withdrawn indictment, the minor and two others were involved in: the torching of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem in February 2016, the attack of a Palestinian shepherd next to Kochav Shachar in the West Bank, the torching of a Palestinian taxi in Kafr Yussuf, the burning of a warehouse in Aqraba, and two incidents in which the tires of dozens of Palestinian cars were slashed in East Jerusalem.
In addition to that February arson, three minors ages 15-16 were indicted in late January 2016 for writing anti-Christian graffiti on the Dormition Abbey Christian holy site and other parts of the Via Dolorosa holy path on January 16-17, 2016.
The graffiti included the words “May his name be obliterated,” “Death to the heathen Christians the enemies of Israel” and “Go to hell,” several other disgraceful messages and were crudely scrawled in red ink on the compound’s walls, drawing international condemnation.
Due to the defendants’ ages, their identities remain under gag order.
They were charged with destroying property based on hostile religious motivations and with harming religious sensitivities.
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.