In recent years, there have been more terrorist attacks in Israel and other countries during Ramadan. On Sunday, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar said that the security agency is dealing with unprecedented terror attack warnings, indicating that the drive to perpetrate attacks remains as strong as ever.
Despite this, religious leaders in Israel and Palestine have recently tried to use Ramadan traditions, officially a month of peace and goodwill marked by prayers, repentance, and charity, in addition to daily fasting.
A spectacular meeting between settlers and Arab officials occurred in 2021 during Iftar in Hevron, and a wide range of Israelis participated in the ceremony commemorating the completion of the daily fast.
Several high-ranking IDF officers from the COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) unit joined local Palestinian merchants and clan elders for another great Iftar lunch on Sunday near Hevron.
The terrorist organization Hamas condemned the meeting in a statement on Sunday, calling it a “totally abhorrent normalization that opposes the ideals of our people of boycotting and fighting the criminal regime.”
Hamas stated that this conduct “betrays the legacy of our brave heroes, which demands an intensification of resistance and a call to arms.”
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Liberation Front for Palestine (PFLP) also denounced the conference.
Leifer’s travels between Israel and Australia were disclosed to the jury, but the circumstances surrounding the trip or its relevance to the accusations were not explained.
The jury was also shielded from the ongoing scandal that led to senior Israeli politician Yaakov Litzman’s resignation from his position as minister. Litzman entered a plea agreement with Israeli prosecutors after acknowledging that he had obstructed justice by preventing Leifer’s extradition from Israel to Australia.
Litzman, a former health minister and steadfast supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu, was charged with exerting pressure on ministry staff to change psychiatric assessments to give the impression that Leifer was incompetent to stand trial.
The three sisters described the abuse Leifer inflicted against them during their testimony in closed court, which was only open to attorneys, the jury, and the judge’s staff.
One of the first people to learn of the charges of abuse made by one of the sisters was social worker Chana Rabinowitz, but she chose not to testify in person before a jury.
Instead, her testimony and cross-examination were videotaped and played to the jury via video link in a closed session.
Islamic Jihad stated, “this very abhorrent conduct comes under the shadow of the crimes of the occupation and the ongoing terror against our people.” It is a knife in the back of our valiant resistance, they said.
Eli Cohen, Israel’s foreign minister, also hosted an Iftar dinner for foreign dignitaries from Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Albania, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Tanzania, Chad, and Azerbaijan.
Manny Waks, a proponent against sex abuse, congratulated the sisters for telling their challenging and private experiences in public.
Hebron- A group of Palestinian businessmen, and clan chiefs in town of Ad-dahriyya have a joint iftar party with military occupation officers from the civil administration branch this evening.
“Mutual benefits”. Want their names & titles? He deleted the tiktok video short after. pic.twitter.com/RtzE1pBBQz
— Younis | يونس (@ytirawi) April 1, 2023
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