Murder of Asher and Yonatan Palmer

Last updated

The Murder of Asher and Yonatan Palmer
Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israel outline south wb.png
Red pog.svg
class=notpageimage|
The attack site
Location Kiryat Arba, West Bank
Coordinates 31°35′23″N35°06′58″E / 31.58972°N 35.11611°E / 31.58972; 35.11611
Date23 September 2011;13 years ago (2011-09-23)
c. 10:00 pm (UTC+2)
WeaponsProjectiles (stones)
Deaths2 civilians
No. of participants
2 Palestinians

The murder of Asher and Yonatan Palmer occurred on 23 September 2011, when a Palestinian stone throwing attack caused Asher, aged 24, to lose control of a vehicle he was driving near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the West Bank, killing him and his infant son. Initially thought to be an accident, it was later deemed a terrorist attack by the Israel Police. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Two Palestinians confessed to the attack; a third, who stole from Asher's body, was convicted of theft. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Biography

Asher and Yonatan Palmer (Hebrew : אשר ויונתן פלמר) were from the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the West Bank. Asher Palmer's parents are American immigrants to Israel, and he held US citizenship through them. He did his national service in the Israel Defense Forces as part of the hesder program, combining military service with religious studies, doing his service in the Israeli Navy, and was discharged several months before his death. [8] At the time of his death, he was studying at the Jerusalem College of Engineering. After his death, the college started a scholarship fund named after him and his son dedicated to helping religious students support their families while studying. [9] His infant son, Yonatan, who was killed with him, was two days short of his first birthday. [10]

Asher Palmer's wife, Puah, is a nurse at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and was pregnant at the time of his death. She gave birth to a girl five months after the attack. [11]

The attack

Asher and Yonatan Palmer were travelling by car along Highway 60 near Kiryat Arba to join Palmer's pregnant wife in Jerusalem. [12] Two Palestinians hurled stones from their car which caused the death of Asher Palmer and his son after their car overturned. Asher Palmer's face was crushed in the lip region and he sustained fractures to his skull. [5]

After the attack, a Palestinian driver, Shehada Awad Shehada Shatat, was driving on Highway 60 and observed the attack and car crash. He did not call for medical aid or attempt to help the victims but stole Asher's handgun from his body. [12] [13] The family of Asher and Yonatan Palmer stated that Asher's wallet was also stolen. [5]

Police investigation

The police initially believed the deaths of Asher Palmer and his son were accidental and a result of driver error. [5] However, they later concluded that the deaths were caused by rocks thrown at their vehicle and classified the incident as a terror attack. The Defense Ministry stated that the dead would be recognized as terror victims. [14]

The attack was investigated by a Hebron District police force that dealt with incidents of rocks being hurled at Israeli vehicles from moving cars, this being the 18th case of such attacks. Investigators found a hole in the car's windshield consistent with a rock's entry point. Three rocks were found in the car, and one of them blood-stained, analysis determining that it was human blood. The fractures to Palmer's skull and facial injuries were also assessed and an autopsy on Asher Palmer's body revealed injuries consistent with rock projectile. [5] [15]

The police were criticized for their initial report of the attack. Settlement leaders said that the police had denied that this was a terror attack to maintain the public order. Minister of the Knesset, Michael Ben Ari, said that the police were fearful of violent protests and the brother-in-law of Asher, Aharon Peretz suggested that the police did not describe this as a terror attack so as not to "fan the flames" and said of Asher, "He never fought with anyone. He was a quiet and special man and this is a great loss." [5]

The mayor of Kiryat Arba, Malachi Levinger, called on the security forces to stop the stone-throwing which endangered lives. He said, "There are tens of thousands of Jews driving to Hebron to pray these days, and their safety must be protected," Danny Dayan demanded the publication of the report saying the public, the media or the bereaved family had not been informed of the true events and that the murder had been covered up. [5] [6]

Funeral

Many people assembled in a parking lot in Kiryat Arba pay their respects to the deceased. After the eulogies finished, the bodies of Asher and Yonatan, wrapped in a tiny prayer shawl, were carried by mourners to a vehicle in which they were transported to Hebron for burial. [6]

Arrests, trials, murder conviction

Two Palestinian men from Halhul, Wa'al al-Arjeh and Ali Saadeh, were arrested for the murders of Asher and Yonatan Palmer following an investigation by the Israel Police, Shin Bet, and the IDF. They admitted to hurling the rock which caused the deaths. The rock was thrown at the victims' car from a vehicle speeding in the opposite direction, thereby significantly increasing the force of impact. [16]

After police examined the possibility that the two were responsible for 17 other cases involving stones being hurled at Israeli vehicles and the prosecution, the prosecution indicted the men for other stone-throwing attacks, one of them who was charged with attempted murder in another case, in which he allegedly threw rocks at a bus to kill passengers. [4] [12] Three other Palestinian men were indicted in connection to the Palmers' deaths who allegedly formed cell to target Israeli civilians. [17]

Monitors from the US Department of State attended pre-trial hearings of the suspects at the Ofer Military Court, and representatives from the US Department of Justice and US Department of State attended the trial, due to the victims having American citizenship. [4] [12]

Asher Palmer's brother, Moshe, said, "I have never felt the need for revenge but I'm glad they were arrested", he added. "Why they did what they did – is no great secret. It doesn't make the pain any easier, but it's good that a relatively short time after the incident, they managed to apprehend the people. I believe that those responsible for catching these people have done their job properly." [4]

On 24 April 2013, Arjeh was convicted by a panel of three judges of intentional murder and sentenced to two life terms and an additional 58 years. [18] [19]

Shehada Awad Shehada Shatat was convicted of stealing Palmer's gun moments immediately after his death and received a 10-month prison sentence and a ₪ 1,000 fine ($USD 280). The prosecution appealed against the leniency of the sentence. Asher Palmer's father, Michael, said that military court had ignored the rights of the victims as he had not been informed of the sentencing hearing and consequently did not provide a victim impact statement for the court to assess. He said, "Shatat saw the attack, saw Asher and Yonatan die, maintained chilling presence of mind as he looked into the just-dead faces of a father and his infant son and then proceeded to desecrate Asher's still warm body to find and steal the weapon. Shatat may very well have literally had Asher's blood on his hands." [13]

The Court of Appeals later considered the victim impact statements and increased the sentence to 15 months imprisonment. [16] [20]

Memorial services

In September 2012, a year after the Palmer deaths, a memorial ceremony was held near Jerusalem, attended by U.S. and Canadian diplomats, to add the names of Asher and Yonatan Palmer to a wall commemorating the 300 Americans and Canadians that have been killed in terrorist attacks and Israel's battles. [21] A vineyard was dedicated to Asher and Yonatan on the anniversary of their death [22] and a children's playground in being built in his memory. [23]

Impact

The deaths have been used as examples during definition of security offenses in the policy change of integration laws. [24]

The Palmer incident was used as the basis for building a defense wall in nearby roads. [25] The IDF stated said policies and rules had been changed as a result of the event. [25]

The trial was unusual, because the Office of the Military Advocate does not usually seek murder convictions in stone-throwing incidents, but in this case both the Military advocate charged the rock-thrower, Wa'al al-Arjeh, with murder and the three-judge panel convicted al-Arjeh of intentional murder. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiryat Arba</span> Israeli settlement in the West Bank

Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the southern Israeli-occupied West Bank. Founded in 1968, in 2022 it had a population of 7,490.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beit HaShalom</span> Four-story apartment building in Hebron, West Bank

Beit HaShalom, or the Rajabi House, also known as Beit HaMeriva, is a four-story apartment building located in the H-2 Area of Hebron, in the West Bank.

The ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Jewish Israeli settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron is part of the wider Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Hebron has a Palestinian majority, consisting of an estimated 208,750 citizens (2015) and a small Jewish minority, variously numbered between 500 and 800. The H1 sector of Hebron, home to around 170,000 Palestinians, is governed by the Palestinian Authority. H2, which was inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians, is under Israeli military control with an entire brigade in place to protect some 800 Jewish residents living in the old Jewish quarter. As of 2015, Israel has declared that a number of special areas of Old City of Hebron constitute a closed military zone. Palestinians shops have been forced to close; despite protests Palestinian women are reportedly frisked by men, and residents, who are subjected every day to repeated body searches, must register to obtain special permits to navigate through the 18 military checkpoints Israel has set up in the city center.

The August 2010 West Bank shooting attack was an attack near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, carried out by Hamas militants. Four Israeli settlers from the settlements of Beit Hagai and Efrat were killed after militants attacked their vehicle. It was the deadliest Palestinian attack on Israelis in over two years.

This page is a listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 Itamar attack</span> Palestinian attack on an Israeli family in the West Bank

The Itamar attack, also called the Itamar massacre, was a terrorist attack on an Israeli family in the Israeli settlement of Itamar in the West Bank that took place on 11 March 2011, in which five members of the same family were murdered in their beds. The victims were the father Ehud (Udi) Fogel, the mother Ruth Fogel, and three of their six children—Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, the youngest, a three-month-old infant. The infant was decapitated. The settlement of Itamar had been the target of several murderous attacks before these killings.

The murders of Koby Mandell and Yosef Ishran occurred on 8 May 2001, when two Jewish teenagers, Yaakov "Koby" Mandell and Yosef Ishran, were killed on the outskirts of the Israeli settlement of Tekoa in the West Bank, where they lived with their families. The identity of the killers has never been determined, though Israel and a number of sources state that unidentified Palestinian terrorists were responsible.

The 2002 Hebron ambush took place in the Wadi an-Nasara neighborhood in Hebron in the West Bank on 15 November 2002. Israeli forces were subjected to a double attack by fighters from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The battle was referred to in Israel as "The attack on the worshippers' route" The place where the attack took place became known as the "Alley of Death" both in Hebrew and Arabic. The ambush was initially dubbed as the "Sabbath massacre" by official Israeli spokespersons.

Kristine Luken was an American Christian who was murdered in a Palestinian terrorist attack on December 18, 2010, while hiking with her friend Kay Wilson in the hills of Jerusalem. Despite multiple stab wounds, Wilson survived the attack; Luken's body was later found by Israeli police, bound and stabbed to death. The Palestinian terror cell that perpetrated the attack were later arrested. During the investigation, the cell members also confessed to the murder of Neta Sorek, whose stabbed body had been found earlier that year near the Beit Jimal Monastery in the Judean Hills. The Palestinian terrorists were convicted of a series of violent crimes.

The Murder of Yaron and Efrat Ungar was a shooting attack on June 9, 1996, during which two Palestinian gunmen killed Yaron and Efrat Ungar as they drove on a road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel near Beit Shemesh. The Palestinian gunmen fired twenty bullets from their Mitsubishi van into the couple's car. Although the bullets missed the couple's one-year-old son, who was in a car seat in the back, both Yaron and Efrat were killed.

On 22 October 2014, a Palestinian rammed his car into a crowd of people waiting at the Ammunition Hill light rail station in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. The attack killed a three-month-old girl and a 22-year-old Ecuadorian potential convert to Judaism, and injured seven others. Police shot the driver of the vehicle as he fled the scene and he later died of his wounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Adele Biton</span> 2013 Palestinian stone throwing attack on civilians which resulted in the death of an infant

The death of Adele Biton occurred on 17 February 2015 as a consequence of a 14 March 2013 Palestinian stone-throwing attack which caused the civilian vehicle in which the 2 year old infant Adele was riding to crash.

Jewish Israeli stone-throwing refers to criminal rock-throwing activity by Jewish Israelis in Mandatory Palestine, Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. It includes material about internecine stone-throwing, in which Haredi Jews throw stones at other Jews as a protest against what they view as violations of religious laws concerning Shabbat, modest clothing for women and similar issues, and material about stone-throwing by extremists in the settler movement.

List of violent events related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict occurring in the second half of 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli settler violence</span> Attacks targeting Palestinians in the West Bank

Palestinians are the target of violence by Israeli settlers and their supporters, predominantly in the West Bank. In November 2021, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz discussed the steep rise in the number of incidents between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, many of which result from attacks by residents of illegal settler outposts on Palestinians from neighboring villages. Settler violence also includes acts known as price tag attacks that are in response to actions by the Israeli government, usually against Palestinian targets and occasionally against Israeli security forces in the West Bank.

On 30 June 2016, a 17-year-old Palestinian male broke into a home in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba and stabbed to death Hallel Yaffa Ariel a thirteen year old Israeli-American citizen in her bedroom. The attacker was then fatally shot by security guards. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed "incitement-driven terrorists" while the U.S. State Department condemned the "outrageous terrorist attack".

Alexander Levlovich was an Israeli who was killed in East Jerusalem on 13 September 2015, by Palestinians who hurled rocks at the car he was driving. He died in hospital the following day. Levlovich was the first casualty in the 2015-2016 wave of violence in Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The wave of violence began when Muslim youths gathered at the al-Aqsa Mosque, with the intention of blocking visits by Jews to the Temple Mount on the eve of the Rosh Hashanah holiday. The youths barricaded themselves inside the Mosque, hurling rocks and flares at police as the police used tear gas and threw stun grenades in an attempt to quell the violence. Social media campaigns rapidly spread news of the rioting, which quickly sparked rock-throwing and stabbing attacks in nearby neighborhoods.

The following is a list of events during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2022.

On 29 October 2022, a Palestinian gunman affiliated with al-Qassam Brigades, the militant arm of Hamas, shot four people, killing one, in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.

References

  1. ↑ Shin Bet: 2 Palestinians admit throwing rocks that killed Israeli Asher Palmer and infant son Quote: "The site of the terror attack where Asher Palmer and his one-year-old son Yonatan were killed."
  2. ↑ Martin Gilbert (27 November 2012). The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Routledge. ISBN   9781135108656 . Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  3. ↑ Pontz, Zach. IDF Lists 2012 Terror Incidents, Including Many "You’ve Probably Never Heard About". The Algeminer, 9 January 2013
  4. 1 2 3 4 Altman, Yair (6 October 2011). "2 Palestinians arrested for Palmer murder". Ynetnews. Ynet. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Altman, Yair (25 September 2011). "Police conclude Kiryat Arba car crash a terror attack". Ynetnews. Ynet. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 "Defense Ministry: Asher Palmer, son were terror victims". The Jerusalem Post. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  7. ↑ "Shin Bet: 2 Palestinians admit throwing rocks that killed Israeli Asher Palmer and infant son". Haaretz. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  8. ↑ "Asher Palmer". Mfa.gov.il. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem". English.jce.ac.il. 17 October 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "Yonatan Palmer". Mfa.gov.il. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Terror victim's widow gives birth". Ynetnews. Ynetnews.com. 20 June 1995. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "US officials to attend Asher Palmer murder trial". The Jerusalem Post. 31 May 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  13. 1 2 "Palmer dad asks military court for harsher sentence". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  14. ↑ Lazaroff, Tovah (3 April 2013). "Palestinian convicted of killing Asher Palmer". jpost.com. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  15. ↑ "Police: Fatal West Bank crash caused by rock throwing". Haaretz. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  16. 1 2 "Judge accepts Palmer's victim impact statement". The Jerusalem Post. 6 June 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  17. ↑ "Court delays hearing in Palmer murder trial". The Jerusalem Post. 29 January 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  18. 1 2 Winer, Stuart (24 April 2013). "Two life terms for Palestinian stone-thrower who killed 2". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  19. ↑ "Palestinian stone-thrower gets life for killings". Ynetnews. Ynetnews.com. 20 June 1995. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  20. ↑ "נפסק דינו של מקומי אשר גנב את נשקו של אשר פאלמר ז"ל". IDF Military Advocate General. 22 August 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  21. ↑ "U.S.-Israelis killed by terrorists to be honored by AACI". Haaretz. 21 September 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  22. ↑ "Memorial Vineyard for Asher and Yehonatan Palmer". Arutz heva. 9 September 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  23. ↑ "Pua Palmer: There Is Light, But No Consolation". Arutz Sheva. 27 January 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  24. ↑ "חסד"פ - חקירת חשודים (תיקון מס' 6)". www.knesset.gov.il. 3 July 2012. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  25. 1 2 "בצה"ל שוקלים: חומה נגד זורקי האבנים". News1. 10 July 1995. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.