‘Slonim a victim of conspiracy’
FAMILY members of dual Australian-Israeli citizen Evyatar Slonim, who is being held without charge in Israel, claim he is a victim of a conspiracy.
FAMILY members of dual Australian-Israeli citizen Evyatar Slonim, who is being held without charge in Israel, claim he is a victim of a conspiracy.
Slonim was one of a number of alleged Jewish extremists arrested in the wake of the arson attack on a Palestinian home in the village of Duma in July, which resulted in the deaths of an 18-month-old baby Ali Dawabsheh and his parents Saad and Riham.
Although it’s not been claimed Slonim was involved in the incident, the 23-year-old and others have been held in administrative detention since August.
Speaking exclusively to The AJN this week, a member of Slonim’s family in Israel said that it was difficult to understand why he is being held.
“Truthfully we feel like there is some sort of conspiracy going on.”
The family, who are originally from Melbourne, say they are “horrified” that he has been detained without trial, and claim that the Shin Bet Israeli security service has fabricated the story of a violent, ultranationalist group known as The Revolt, which Slonim is said to be involved in, “to justify jailing [Slonim] and others and help create an illusion of Jewish terror”.
Slonim has been described by some as a “hilltop youth”, a term commonly used to refer to hardline Israeli nationalists who live in illegal outposts, but his family deny that he is a member of any kind of terror group.
“For many years the media has painted these guys as extreme and tried to portray them as being lawless,” the family member told The AJN.
“This is not the case. These are youths and adults who are gravely concerned about the Land of Israel and are trying to settle the land. Any ‘crime’ that they may ever have been involved in has to do with settling the land, nothing more than that and never God forbid anything along the lines of murder.”
The Israeli government has billed the ability to detain suspected Jewish extremists without charge as an important tool to fight Jewish terror.
It is understood that a representative of the Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv has visited Slonim. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed it was providing consular assistance to a dual Australian-Israeli citizen in Israel, but could not comment further.
AJN STAFF
For further coverage, see this week’s AJN.
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