Petah Tikva resident Zohar Zuaretz accused of 'price tag' act, publishing numerous Facebook posts calling for slaughter of ArabsThe Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court on Monday indicted an Israeli man who published virulent anti-Arab posts on Facebook on charges including incitement to violence, incitement to racism and support for a terror organization.Between 2012 and 2017, Zohar Zuaretz, 33, a Jewish resident of Petah Tikva in central Israel, published numerous posts calling for acts of violence to be carried out against Arabs as well as Israeli security forces, according to the charge sheet. He continued to do so despite being arrested and questioned several times for his posts.In one post, Zuarets wrote about a "rosy" dream he had in which he decapitated Arab babies.Zuaretz, who had over a thousand followers reading his posts, published posts such asand "How did we not think of establishing a 'price tag' political party," a reference to anti-Arab hate crimes.Zuaretz wrote in one of his posts, apparently in the aftermath of a terror attack against Israelis."For every murdered Jew, we need to avenge an entire people responsible for harming him! For a single Jew to live we are required to exterminate entire peoples, even millions of people!" he wrote.Zuaretz was also charged with carrying out a "price tag" attack in which he vandalized a police car, spray-painting the vehicle and slashing its tires.He spray-painted "death to Arabs" and other slogans on two buses belonging to the Afikim company, which serves both Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank.The indictment also cited a post Zuaretz made against the IDF following the conviction of Elor Azaria, a soldier who shot dead an already subdued Palestinian assailant in Hebron in March 2016."A true Jew does not enlist in the evil, infidel's army. Go and do things alone. It's time to start a rebellion. I'm expecting all the soldiers to defect and direct their weapons in the right direction," he wrote.Prosecutors concluded that Zuaretz posed a "clear risk of continuing criminal offenses on the internet, which would endanger the security of the Arab community and security forces." </s> The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court on Monday indicted an Israeli man who published virulent anti-Arab posts on Facebook on charges including incitement to violence, incitement to racism and support for a terror organization.

Between 2012 and 2017, Zohar Zuaretz, 33, a Jewish resident of Petah Tikva in central Israel, published numerous posts calling for acts of violence to be carried out against Arabs as well as Israeli security forces, according to the charge sheet. He continued to do so despite being arrested and questioned several times for his posts.

Examples of posts by the far-right radical included calls to “exterminate” millions of Arabs in response for attacks against Israelis.

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In one post, Zuarets wrote about a “rosy” dream he had in which he decapitated Arab babies.

“Wow, what a dream I had! I go into a hospital’s maternity ward and there are all the cradles with babies inside. I draw out a butcher knife from my coat and go to every baby and if it’s Arab, I decapitate it. Wherever there is a Jewish baby I place Tikkun HaKlali [a religious Jewish book also known as The General Remedy]. The rosiest dream I’ve ever had!”

Zuaretz, who had over a thousand followers reading his posts, published posts such as “May all Arabs and left-wingers be burned!” and “How did we not think of establishing a ‘price tag’ political party,” a reference to anti-Arab hate crimes.

“Dear Jews! It is time for a holy war — go out and slaughter all the Arabs with anything you can find! Revenge!” Zuaretz wrote in one of his posts, apparently in the aftermath of a terror attack against Israelis.

“For every murdered Jew, we need to avenge an entire people responsible for harming him! For a single Jew to live we are required to exterminate entire peoples, even millions of people!” he wrote.

Zuaretz was also charged with carrying out a “price tag” attack in which he vandalized a police car, spray-painting the vehicle and slashing its tires.

He spray-painted “death to Arabs” and other slogans on two buses belonging to the Afikim company, which serves both Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank.

The indictment also cited a post Zuaretz made against the IDF following the conviction of Elor Azaria, a soldier who shot dead an already subdued Palestinian assailant in Hebron in March 2016.

“A true Jew does not enlist in the evil, infidel’s army. Go and do things alone. It’s time to start a rebellion. I’m expecting all the soldiers to defect and direct their weapons in the right direction,” he wrote.

Prosecutors concluded that Zuaretz posed a “clear risk of continuing criminal offenses on the internet, which would endanger the security of the Arab community and security forces.” </s> Michael Kadar, an American-Israeli man convicted of terrorizing Jewish community centers across the U.S. with a wave of bogus bomb threats, was sentenced by a court in Tel Aviv to 10 years in prison Thursday.

Unidentified by Israeli media outlets on account of starting his crime spree while still a minor, the dual citizen was found guilty in June in connection with placing thousands of threatening phone calls against various victims in the U.S. and abroad between 2015 and 2017, including airports, airlines, schools and Jewish community centers.

Israeli outlets described the so-called “JCC hoax bomber” as the same person previously charged with related crimes by the U.S. Department of Justice, consequently revealing his identity as Kadar.

The Justice Department charged Kadar, 20, last year with dozens of counts connected to a wave of threatening calls placed against U.S. victims prior to his March 2017 arrest, and prosecutors subsequently filed federal hate crimes charges against him in Feb. 2018.

The dual citizen issued more than 2,000 threats prior to his arrest, according to the Israeli State Prosecutor’s office, and the U.S. Justice Department has previously identified his targets as Jewish centers in at least three states, as well as the Orlando International Airport, the Anti-Defamation League’s headquarters and the Israeli Embassy in D.C., among other targets.

“When individuals target victims of their crimes based on who they are, what they believe, or how they worship, they target the bedrock principles on which our nation was founded,” former Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement issued when the Justice Department announced the hate crime charges against Kadar.

Discussing the crimes during Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Zvi Gurfinkel described the impact the bogus bomb threats had on victims flying aboard airlines targeted by his threats.

“One can easily imagine the terror, the fear and the horror that gripped the airplane passengers who were forced to make an emergency landing, some of whom were injured while evacuating the plane and the terrified panic caused when there was a need to evacuate pupils from schools because of fake bomb threats,” he wrote in his verdict, The New York Times reported.

Kadar did not deny responsibility during trial, instead blaming his actions on his autism, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

“Were it not for his condition, I would have sentenced him to 17 years in prison,” Judge Gurfinkel ruled Thursday, according to JWire, a Jewish news service that covered the case.

“This is the most cruel, cruel thing in the world,” Kadar’s mother said of the sentencing, The New York Times reported. “I’m very sorry, but I am ashamed that the country acts this way.”

Representatives for the Justice Department did not immediately comment on the sentence. </s> Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted on public corruption charges after a two-year investigation and less than six weeks before the nation’s general election, Israel’s attorney general announced Thursday.

Netanyahu — who is currently serving in his third consecutive term as prime minister and fourth overall — faces one count of bribery and two counts of fraud and breach of trust, NBC News reported.

The most serious charge alleges Netanyahu provided regulatory concessions to Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in Bezeq telecommunications, in exchange for favorable media coverage from Bezeq’a news site, called Walla, according to Haaretz.

The prime minister is also accused of accepting gifts from wealthy business figures in exchange for political favors.

Another charge centers around an alleged deal with Arnon Mozes for favorable news coverage in return for supporting legislation to damage the newspaper Israel Hayom, owned by American businessman Sheldon Adelson.

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“I’m very worried for freedom of the press and freedom of government in Israel if they start indicting people for trying to get good coverage from the media,” Dershowitz told Army Radio, according to The Times of Israel.

“I don’t know of any other country that has criminalized trying to get good coverage and make that a basis of bribery or any other corruption investigation.”

Israeli law professor Said Avi Bell told NBC News that the indictment inserts law enforcement into the nation’s politics “in an unprecedented way, and on a very shaky legal foundation.”

Netanyahu’s Likud Party responded to the indictment announcement, saying in a statement that “there is nothing” to the cases.

The party accused “the media and the left” of pressuring a “weak” attorney general into the decision. “No one is surprised by the announcement.”

The statement further claimed that “the witch hunt against the prime minister began with an attempt to hit him with four bribery cases. Even before the hearing, three of those have collapsed.”

Asked about the then-anticipated indictment announcement, President Donald Trump told reporters in Vietnam that he did not know about the specific charges.

“I think he’s been a great prime minister,” he said.

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“He’s done a great job as prime minister,” the president added. “He’s tough, he’s smart, he’s strong.”

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. </s> Israeli security forces on Wednesday arrested Zakaria Zubeidi, a former Palestinian terrorist leader long sought by Israeli law enforcement, on suspicion that he was engaged in “serious and current terrorist activities,” the Shin Bet said.

In addition to Zubeidi, Israeli forces also arrested on similar charges the attorney Tarek Barghout, who often represents terror suspects.

“This morning, in a joint operation by the Shin Bet security service, Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police, Zakaria Zubeidi and Tarek Barghout were arrested in connection with their involvement in serious and current terrorist activities,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.

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The security service refused to elaborate on the nature of the suspicions against Zubeidi and Barghout.

The two men were arrested in the Ramallah area of the central West Bank, the Shin Bet said.

According to Palestinian media, Israeli forces also confiscated Barghout’s car in Ramallah.

מקורות פלסטיניים מדווחים כי כוחות צה"ל נכנסו לרמאללה תחתית. על פי הדיווחים, הכוחות ביצעו חיפוש במקום בו שהה טארק ברגות שנעצר והחרימו את מכוניתו @nurityohanan pic.twitter.com/AsEzEBdKoP — כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 27, 2019

During the Second Intifada, Zubeidi served as the commander of the Jenin region of Fatah’s military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. He was also suspected of being one of the chief architects of several terror attacks during the early 2000s.

Zubeidi, who also helped found Jenin’s Freedom Theatre in 2006, evaded capture by Israeli forces for years, before the Israeli government offered him and several other al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades members amnesty in 2007.

While he was wanted by Israel for his terrorist activities, Zubeidi began a relationship with an Israeli woman, Tali Fahima, in 2004. Fahima moved into Zubeidi’s Jenin home in order to act as a human shield and prevent Israel from conducting an airstrike to kill him. She was later arrested and convicted of assisting an enemy in wartime.

In December 2011, the Israeli government rescinded Zubeidi’s amnesty without public explanation. Zubeidi has been on Jerusalem’s wanted list ever since.

Initially, Zubeidi evaded capture by Israeli forces by remaining in Palestinian Authority custody in Ramallah. He was released by the PA and permitted to return to Jenin in 2017. </s> The indictment marks the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime.

ed note–before all the usual suspects, and particularly within the ‘Pro-Palestine’ community, erupt with orgasmic enthusiasm over this development, recall that it is but another manifestation of ‘by way of deception, we shall make war…’

Firstly, the obvious–Netanyahu is a war criminal with the blood of not just tens of thousands, but indeed MILLIONS of innocent people on his hands. Besides Gaza, there is–

1. 3,000 Americans who lost their lives as a result of the Israeli-engineered terrorist attacks on 9/11 with which Netanyahu was intimately involved at both the planning and operation levels and which he characterized as ‘good’ in that they would generate ‘immediate sympathy for Israel’,

2. The genocide in Iraq that killed over a million and displaced even more,

3. The genocide in Libya that killed hundreds of thousands in the NATO bombing campaign,

4. The genocide in Syria, which killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions more,

5. Yemen and its carnage which is ongoing.

And yet, he is being charged with ‘white collar’ crimes of ‘corruption, bribery, fraud and breach of trust.’

This is about Israel doing a little TLC-based maintenance to her public image in affecting the mirage of a Jewish state that is governed by the same Western laws proscribing dishonesty, corruption, and theft, all of which are considered virtues within the Judaic paradigm. Like a VD-infected prostitute run down on drugs, covered with Meth sores all over her body, teeth rotting out and who smells like an outhouse walking on 2 legs who checks herself into some rehab center to get ‘cleaned up’ only to emerge a few weeks later and return to the streets in a much more marketable manner, likewise, the whore of Babylon calling itself the Jewish state is doing the same.

Israel’s attorney general announced Thursday that his office had indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges after a two-year investigation.

The prime minister faces one count of bribery and two counts of fraud and breach of trust.

Police have previously recommended indicting Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different cases.

The most serious allegations against Netanyahu involve his relationship with Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of Israel’s telecom giant Bezeq. Police recommended an indictment in the case based on evidence collected that confidants of Netanyahu promoted regulatory changes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq. In exchange, they believe Netanyahu used his connections with Elovitch to receive positive press coverage on Bezeq’s popular subsidiary news site, Walla. Police have said their investigation concluded that Netanyahu and Elovitch engaged in a “bribe-based relationship.”

Police also recommended charges be brought against Elovitch, members of his family and members of his Bezeq management team.

Police have previously recommended indicting Netanyahu on corruption charges in two other cases. One involves accepting gifts from billionaire friends, and the second revolves around alleged offers of advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in return for favorable coverage.

Netanyahu, 69, who is serving his third consecutive term as prime minister and his fourth overall, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and called the various allegations against him a witch hunt aimed at removing him from office.

The attorney general’s decision to publish his conclusions 39 days prior to the general election on April 9 is raising questions about what impact it can have on the outcome of the vote.

Israeli media reported Thursday that with just hours to go before Mandelblit’s anticipated decision to indict Netanyahu, his Likud Party filed a petition to the Supreme Court to stop the announcement from happening before the election on the grounds that it would unfairly impact on Netanyahu’s prospects of re-election. However, the court’s spokesperson confirmed later in the afternoon that the petition was rejected.

The indictment marks the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime.

Legal experts in Israel say it could take up to a year for a hearing process into the charges to end and an additional two years for a court case to be heard.

While Israeli prime ministers are not required by law to resign if charged, the prospect of a prime minister standing trial while simultaneously running the country would be unchartered territory.

In response to the indictment, Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute said Netanyahu should consider carefully whether it’s best for him to stay on as prime minister or resign and focus on proving his case in the courts.

“We cannot ignore the serious potential damage to the public’s trust in the state’s institutions caused by a situation in which the government is headed by an individual charged with criminal misconduct involving abuse of power,” the organization’s statement said.

The institute says the timing of the announcement doesn’t constitute “an inappropriate influence on the elections” because it was made “within a reasonable amount of time before the elections, taking into account both the public’s right to know and the desire not to intervene in the electoral process.”

Israeli law professor Said Avi Bell said the indictment inserts law enforcement officials into the political arena “in an unprecedented way, and on a very shaky legal foundation.”

President Donald Trump, with whom Netanyahu has forged a close connection, said “[Netanyahu’s] done a great job as prime minister” in response to a question in Hanoi, where he was holding a summit with the leader of North Korea.

“He’s tough, he’s smart, he’s strong,” Trump said of the Israeli leader, but didn’t comment on the indictment.

Netanyahu rushed back Wednesday from a diplomatic mission to Moscow, and a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, to prepare for his expected rebuttal to the charges on Thursday.

While no stranger to scandal, this was the first time Netanyahu faced the possibility of being formally charged with a crime.

Netanyahu and his family’s luxurious lifestyle — often at taxpayers’ expense — has come under scrutiny before. Nearly six years ago, Netanyahu was criticized for reportedly spending $127,000 in public funds for a special sleeping cabin for a five-and-a-half hour flight to London for Margaret Thatcher’s funeral. That came just months after the Netanyahu family’s taxpayer-funded food budget included $2,700 for artisanal pistachio and French vanilla ice cream. </s> Alaa S., suspected of being responsible for the stabbing of Daniel H. in Chemnitz, arrives for at a court in Dresden

DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) - A German court sentenced a Syrian asylum seeker to nine and a half years in prison on Thursday over the fatal stabbing of a man in the eastern city of Chemnitz last year that triggered the worst far-right riots Germany had seen for decades.

The verdict handed down in the city of Dresden in the high profile case comes barely a week before elections in the region in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expected to make big gains. The AfD welcomed the verdict.

It is almost exactly a year since the stabbing which led to thousands of right-wingers, including neo-Nazis and soccer hooligans, marching through Chemnitz and clashing with left- wingers and police.

Images of skinheads or far-right demonstrators chasing migrants, performing the Hitler salute and attacking a Jewish restaurant, raised questions about how Germany should deal with its far-right, especially after the 2015-16 migrant crisis.

The 24-year-old Syrian, identified only as Alaa S., according to German rules, was convicted of manslaughter. The Cuban-German victim, Daniel Hillig, died of his injuries after being stabbed in Chemnitz on the sidelines of a local festival.

The Syrian was also convicted of inflicting serious bodily harm on another victim, Dimitri M., who was injured but survived.

"The accused was today found guilty of joint manslaughter and grievous bodily harm. He has therefore been sentenced to a jail term of nine years and six months," a spokeswoman for the court said.

Defense lawyers, who had called for their client to be acquitted, argued there was no evidence that their client had helped stab the victim and said they would appeal.

German authorities have also issued an international arrest warrant for an Iraqi suspect who has been on the run since the incident. They believe he was the main culprit in the killing.

The AfD said on Facebook it hoped the Iraqi suspect would be found soon and added that Chemnitz had been unfairly "branded as a playground for right-wing radicals".

"No verdict will return Daniel H. to his family and friends but at least it brings some justice in a reality that claims new victims every week," it said.

Opinion polls show that the AfD could become the biggest party in the two eastern states of Saxony and Brandenburg, which hold elections on Sept. 1.

The trial took place in Dresden, the capital of Saxony state rather than in nearby Chemnitz because of the high level of public interest in the case. </s> Sgt. Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian knife attack suspect, was sentenced to 18 months in military prison Tuesday.

The Palestinian, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, 21, was one of two men accused of stabbing another Israeli soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron in March.

The judge announced Azaria will demoted to the rank of private and handed him a 12-month probation on top of his prison sentence.

Charges were brought against Azaria after video footage emerged showing him shooting Sharif in the head as he lay on the ground, injured and already subdued.

The second Palestinian suspect had already been shot dead.

The case against Azaria has divided opinion among the Israeli public, politicians and members of the military, and focused attention on the military’s code of ethics.

The incident took place while Azaria was serving in Hebron, a largely Palestinian city in the West Bank with a small population of Israeli settlers. The Israeli soldier who had been attacked suffered a minor injury.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Azaria arrived at the scene approximately 11 minutes after the attack, cocked his rifle and shot Sharif in the head, killing him.

Azaria denied the charges against him, but a three-member panel of military judges was unanimous in finding him guilty of manslaughter and improper conduct.

At the heart of the case was the motivation for Azaria’s actions. The soldier’s defense argued he felt his life was in danger, while the prosecution contended he was motivated by vengeance.

That defense was rejected by the judges.

The head judge, Col. Maya Heller, stated that Azaria was an “unreliable” witness and that his defense witnesses were also problematic. She called the shooting “needless.” </s> Israeli security forces arrested a prominent former Palestinian militant and a lawyer on Wednesday in a West Bank raid over "terror" allegations, officials said.

"Zakaria Zubeidi and Tareq Barghout were arrested over their involvement in current severe terror activity," the Shin Bet domestic security service said in a statement, refusing to provide further details.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club said Zubeidi, the former head of the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades militant group, was arrested in a village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The arrests come with Israeli security forces concerned over increased tensions in the West Bank after recent scuffles at a Jerusalem holy site and Israel's decision to withhold tens of millions of dollars in tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority.

Israel is withholding $138 million in tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority over its payments to the families of prisoners, or prisoners themselves, jailed for attacks on Israelis.

Israel is also gearing up to hold elections on April 9.

Zubeidi had faced charges in the past from the Palestinian Authority for taking part in a shooting attack on the residence of Jenin governor Qaddura Musa in 2002.

Musa died after suffering a heart attack during the incident, and Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of people, including Zubeidi, shortly afterwards.

In 2011, the Freedom Theatre's well-known Israeli-Palestinian director Juliano Mer-Khamis was gunned down in Jenin's refugee camp, in an attack that remains unsolved.
Petah Tikva resident Zohar Zuaretz is indicted on counterterror charges for far right social media posts in which he spoke of killing Arabs.