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by IMEMC News & Agencies

Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet, on Thursday, cautioned that a Jewish terror organization is seeking to “violently overthrow” the Israeli government, Israeli media reported.

Israeli media across the board described the public statement issued by the security agency as a rare response to actors who have slandered the Shin Bet in a campaign to defend Jewish extremists responsible for a fatal arson attack on a Palestinian home last summer.

Suspects belonging to a Jewish terror organization, on July 31, set the home of the Dawabsha family ablaze, killing an 18-month-old baby immediately.

The infant’s parents later died from severe burns.

"A Jewish terror organization has been under investigation recently, whose activity is suspected to include serious terror attacks that endangered life and harmed religious sanctity and property," the Shin Bet statement said, according to Israeli media.

Shin Bet claims that the group adheres to an extreme, "anti-Zionist" ideology and has set itself the goal of violently overthrowing the Israeli government.

"The terror attacks that are suspected to have been carried out by the organization led to, among other things, the murder of three innocent Palestinians. This contributed to instability in the region and worsened the security situation," the agency added.

The statement came hours after lawyers representing the suspects held a press conference accusing the agency for using methods of torture during interrogation, according to Ma'an.

Concerns among the Israeli public, as well as the international community of the rising influence of extremists on policies of the Israeli government have been voiced repeatedly in past months.

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi on Wednesday denounced Israel’s failure to prosecute the suspects responsible for the Dawabsha arson attack as effectively condoning violent behavior of Israeli settlers.

“When it comes to Jewish criminality or terrorism against Palestinian victims, the legal system in Israel seems to fall apart,” the PLO official said in a statement.
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by YAAKOV LAPPIN for Jerusalem Post

The Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency issued a detailed denial on Thursday in response to claims of torture made by lawyers representing Jewish suspects who are in custody as part of the investigation into July’s arson attack in Duma, in which a Palestinian toddler and his parents were murdered.

“Recently, a Jewish terrorist organization has been investigated. Its operatives are suspected of severe terrorist attacks, which endangered lives, holy sites, and property,” the Shin Bet said.

“This organization is characterized by an extreme, anti-Zionist ideology, which aims to use violent means to topple the State of Israel, including through terrorist acts to promote its goals,” it added.

“Terrorist attacks carried out by the organization led to, among others, the murder of three innocent Palestinians, and as a result, contributed to instability in the region, and worsened the security situation,” the Shin Bet said.

To thwart the significant security threat posed by members of the group, and to meet the obligation of preventing further acts of murder, a number of “central operatives in the terrorist organization have been arrested for questioning.

They have been interrogated intensively on the suspicion attributed to them,” the Shin Bet added.

“Unfortunately, since the arrests, the Shin Bet has identified an ongoing initiative aimed at slandering the organization and its employees, and disrupting its operational work. This effort is worthy of all condemnation, and it will not stop the Shin Bet, as the agent of the State of Israel, under its state values, from carrying out its work,” the agency stated.

All lines of investigation have been followed out in strict accordance with the law, it said.

Earlier on Thursday, lawyers from the Honenu legal representation group representing the suspects accused the Shin Bet of physical torture.

Honenu said some of the suspects have been allowed to meet with their lawyers after 21 days of being in custody, adding that “one of the interrogators attacked the private parts of one of the suspects, while the other changed the seating position of a minor on a chair while he was bound, until he could no longer feel his limbs.”

Adi Keidar, one of the attorneys representing a minor, said at the news conference, “Today is a sad day for the legal and law enforcement fields in Israel. Today is the day that the state decided, for the first time in its history, to turn into another state, a state we should not be in, in which the Shin Bet interrogation room is a place where suspects have no rights, and anything that comes to the mind of the interrogator can be done to them.”

Keidar said that when he saw his minor client, “I understood that I am not looking at the same person that I know. I was looking at a completely different person, a person who experienced something very difficult.”