We Must Not Pardon Jewish Terrorists
Israel is witnessing a growing normalization of Jewish terrorism. We need to stop dismissing this as an embarrassment or a public relations problem and start to frame it as the moral abomination it is, akin in severity if not in prevalence to support for Palestinian terrorism.
The immediate example of this normalization is the campaign to pardon Jews who murdered Arabs on a nationalist basis, beginning with Ami Popper, who murdered seven Palestinian workers at a bus stop in 1990. In recent weeks, Minister of Justice Yariv Levin has been trying to convince President Isaac Herzog to commute Popper’s sentence, and reports indicate that Herzog may be leaning toward acquiescing. On October 28th, 55 ministers and Members of Knesset signed a letter calling for the “release of the Jewish National Prisoners.”
This is horrifying enough on its own. Two of Israel’s most senior and visible politicians are considering commuting the sentence of a mass murderer, reportedly to “balance out” the release of Palestinian terrorists as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. Yet the release of Palestinian murderers is something that Israel was forced to do. Few Israelis would advocate releasing terrorists with blood on their hands if not for the most exceptional circumstances. No such necessity forces our hand when it comes to terrorists like Popper.
The current campaign extends well beyond one convict. The organization Honenu is reportedly pushing for the release of 25 prisoners, including Amiram Ben-Uliel, who was convicted of burning to death three Palestinians in 2015, including an 18-month-old baby. Others are calling for the pardoning of the three young men who kidnapped and burned to death the Palestinian youth Muhammad Abu-Khdeir in 2014. The call to release Jewish terrorists has been supported by such prominent figures as the Sephardi Chief Rabbi, David Yossef, and the head of the Shomron regional council, Yossi Dagan. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Rabbi of Safed and one of the most influential figures in the national religious community, said on a radio show “It is inconceivable that we would release Arab murderers and, God forbid, leave Jews [who killed Arabs] in jail.”
The roots of the problem run deep. The “Otzma Yehudit” party is shot through with support for Jewish terrorism. Most infamously, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the head of the party, had a picture of Jewish mass murderer Baruch Goldstein in his living room until 2020. Another party member, MK and deputy Speaker of Knesset Limor Son Har-Melech, has gone further. She called Ben-Uliel– again, a man who burned an innocent Palestinian family alive– a “holy righteous man,” and spearheaded a fundraiser on his behalf. The fundraiser netted nearly 2 million shekels from some 10,000 donors, including another influential rabbi, Dov Lior (the rabbi of Otzma Yehudit). This was reminiscent of the call in 2019 by major rabbinic figures, including the late Rabbi Haim Druckman and Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, to donate funds toward “the legal and public struggle” of the minor who had been indicted for killing the Palestinian woman Aisha A-Rabi, a mother of nine. That minor stood accused of hurling a 2 kg boulder through the windshield of the car she was in.
Israelis have long criticized, and rightly so, the Palestinian Authority for transferring large funds to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, including murderers and terrorists, and celebrating their release. The campaigns for despicable murderers such as Ben-Uliel are no better. It is especially perverse because no such campaigns would ever be conducted for Jews who were guilty of murdering other Jews; it is specifically those who killed Arabs who are singled out for support.
Supporters of Ben-Uliel often challenge his guilt, claiming that he was convicted “only based on a confession extracted under torture,” as a letter signed by five Knesset members stated. This is false: after three of Ben-Uliel’s confessions were deemed inadmissible by the court, he was convicted based on multiple other pieces of evidence, including two additional confessions and a re-enactment of the crime that contained details not even known to the investigators. But the claim is even more hollow given the wider context. The campaign to release Jewish terrorists includes figures like Popper whose convictions have never been seriously questioned. And whereas many anti-torture organizations and figures associated with the Israeli left criticized the use of coercion against Ben-Uliel, one never hears figures like Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir—who lambasted the conviction—oppose similar methods when used against Palestinians. Moreover, this too undermines our righteous indignation at support for Palestinian terrorists. After all, if Israelis can dismiss the convictions of Jewish Israeli citizens as unfair, how much easier is it to claim that Palestinians convicted of terrorism—who are overwhelmingly tried by military courts and who have far fewer rights and protections—might all be innocent themselves?
Rabbi Eliyahu mentioned another oft-cited rationale for releasing Jewish terrorists: it is not unprecedented. This is true. In 1990, President Chaim Herzog (the current president’s father) commuted the life sentences of three Jewish terrorists, who had been convicted for their part in a shooting attack in Hebron that killed three Palestinian students and injured dozens more. From life sentences they ended up serving less than seven years. Then in 1999 Ezer Weizman commuted the sentences of several Israeli killers and attempted killers, including for example Daniel Morali, who was convicted of shooting dead a Palestinian truck driver in cold blood in 1994.
This is indeed a precedent, but it is a shameful one, not one we should wish to emulate. To view Arab victims of terrorism as less deserving of justice is a perversion of the values we cherish in the Jewish state. We must turn away from this dark path in the name of basic decency.
