26 may 2020
Rabbi Elazar Rompler, who taught in Canadian school belonging to the radical sect, is charged with stripping and beating a 9-year-old for allegedly stealing and a 10-year-old accused of lying about needing glasses, both in front of the entire student body
A member of the ultra-Orthodox Lev Tahor cult was indicted on Tuesday at Jerusalem District Court on charges of mentally and physically abusing children.
According to the indictment, in 2009-2011, when he served as the principal of a school belonging to the sect in Canada, 46-year-old Rabbi Elazar Rompler allegedly abused two children aged 9 and 10 years of age.
Lev Tahor was founded in Jerusalem in the 1990s by charismatic leader Rabbi Shlomo Hebrans who died in mysterious circumstances in Mexico in 2017.
According to the charges, in 2009, Rompler allegedly had a child stripped of his clothes, tied up and beaten with a stick and a belt for several hours over suspicions he stole money from a charity box.
Quoting bible verses condemning theft, the defendant addressed the entire student body explaining his actions as the child cried in pain beside him. After beating him on the back, the child was turned over and the beatings continued on his abdomen, chest, legs and buttocks.
The child was unable to stand on his own feet after the beating and had to be carried home by classmates.
In another incident, in 2011, Rompler was accused of instructing other teachers to hold a child down and beat him repeatedly for allegedly lying that he needed glasses. The child was also held down by teachers and beat repeatedly on his back and buttocks while the defendant spoke to the student body that was assembled to watch about the sin of telling lies.
Lev Tahor, which has about 230 members, has frequently moved from country to country in efforts to escape criminal charges.
In 2014, it relocated to Guatemala from Canada following allegations of mistreatment of its children including abuse and child-marriages and separating children from their parents.
In September the sect had requested political asylum in Iran, according to documents filed in a U.S. Federal Court after at least six members of its leadership were indicted in the United States on various charges including kidnapping, identity theft (use of false passports), conspiracy to defraud the United States and international parental kidnapping.
Lev Tahor declared its “loyalty and submission to the Supreme Leader and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, the documents state.
In April 2017, Israel designated the group a violent cult after evidence of severe mental and physical abuse of members emerged and reports that parents within the sect prevented their children from attending formal education and cut them off from the outside world surfaced.
Rompler was arrested in December after arriving in Israel. He has since been under house arrest and has an order prohibiting him from leaving the country has been issued by the court.
A member of the ultra-Orthodox Lev Tahor cult was indicted on Tuesday at Jerusalem District Court on charges of mentally and physically abusing children.
According to the indictment, in 2009-2011, when he served as the principal of a school belonging to the sect in Canada, 46-year-old Rabbi Elazar Rompler allegedly abused two children aged 9 and 10 years of age.
Lev Tahor was founded in Jerusalem in the 1990s by charismatic leader Rabbi Shlomo Hebrans who died in mysterious circumstances in Mexico in 2017.
According to the charges, in 2009, Rompler allegedly had a child stripped of his clothes, tied up and beaten with a stick and a belt for several hours over suspicions he stole money from a charity box.
Quoting bible verses condemning theft, the defendant addressed the entire student body explaining his actions as the child cried in pain beside him. After beating him on the back, the child was turned over and the beatings continued on his abdomen, chest, legs and buttocks.
The child was unable to stand on his own feet after the beating and had to be carried home by classmates.
In another incident, in 2011, Rompler was accused of instructing other teachers to hold a child down and beat him repeatedly for allegedly lying that he needed glasses. The child was also held down by teachers and beat repeatedly on his back and buttocks while the defendant spoke to the student body that was assembled to watch about the sin of telling lies.
Lev Tahor, which has about 230 members, has frequently moved from country to country in efforts to escape criminal charges.
In 2014, it relocated to Guatemala from Canada following allegations of mistreatment of its children including abuse and child-marriages and separating children from their parents.
In September the sect had requested political asylum in Iran, according to documents filed in a U.S. Federal Court after at least six members of its leadership were indicted in the United States on various charges including kidnapping, identity theft (use of false passports), conspiracy to defraud the United States and international parental kidnapping.
Lev Tahor declared its “loyalty and submission to the Supreme Leader and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, the documents state.
In April 2017, Israel designated the group a violent cult after evidence of severe mental and physical abuse of members emerged and reports that parents within the sect prevented their children from attending formal education and cut them off from the outside world surfaced.
Rompler was arrested in December after arriving in Israel. He has since been under house arrest and has an order prohibiting him from leaving the country has been issued by the court.
Court rules Malka Leifer, alleged sexual abuser from Melbourne, has been simulating mental illness and is fit to be tried; ruling was made after Leifer's lawyers contested experts who deemed her fit for trial back in January
An Israeli court decided on Tuesday that a former Australian school principal accused of sexually assaulting students is mentally fit to stand trial, opening the way for her extradition to Australia, Israeli media reports said.
“The court has determined the defendant was simulating her inability to function and is fit to stand trial,” said the judges in a written statement, adding Leifer does not suffer from mental illness "in a legal sense."
“Therefore, we order for the extradition proceedings to be resumed.”
Malka Leifer had claimed mental illness in fighting her return to Australia, and the case has dragged on in Israel since 2014. Leifer, a former principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne, has denied the allegations against her.
An Israeli court decided on Tuesday that a former Australian school principal accused of sexually assaulting students is mentally fit to stand trial, opening the way for her extradition to Australia, Israeli media reports said.
“The court has determined the defendant was simulating her inability to function and is fit to stand trial,” said the judges in a written statement, adding Leifer does not suffer from mental illness "in a legal sense."
“Therefore, we order for the extradition proceedings to be resumed.”
Malka Leifer had claimed mental illness in fighting her return to Australia, and the case has dragged on in Israel since 2014. Leifer, a former principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne, has denied the allegations against her.
Malka Leifer's family arrives in court
The Australian government welcomed the decision, saying the country is committed to bring Leifer to "stand trial on the 74 counts of child sexual abuse against her," said the official statement.
"Whilst today's decision can be appealed, it is a positive sign and means that formal extradition proceedings can now lawfully commence, subject to any orders relevant to any possible appeal," Attorney-General, Christian Porter, said.
"Celebration," said Manny Waks, an advocate for the victims, wrote on Facebook in a liveblog from the courtroom. "Goosebumps throughout my body."OMG!!!" wrote Dassi Ehrlich, one of Malka's alleged victims.
The suspect initially has been found fit to stand trial in her native Australia back in January, but a month later the Jerusalem District Court approved a request made by Leifer's attorneys, allowing them to contest the psychiatric experts.
Attorney Yehuda Freed added at this stage it is not possible to launch another appeal since this is an interim decision. "When a decision is made on her extradition, we intend to appeal both the extradition and the ruling that finds her fit for trial."
The hearing on her extradition is set to be held on July 20.
The Australian government welcomed the decision, saying the country is committed to bring Leifer to "stand trial on the 74 counts of child sexual abuse against her," said the official statement.
"Whilst today's decision can be appealed, it is a positive sign and means that formal extradition proceedings can now lawfully commence, subject to any orders relevant to any possible appeal," Attorney-General, Christian Porter, said.
"Celebration," said Manny Waks, an advocate for the victims, wrote on Facebook in a liveblog from the courtroom. "Goosebumps throughout my body."OMG!!!" wrote Dassi Ehrlich, one of Malka's alleged victims.
The suspect initially has been found fit to stand trial in her native Australia back in January, but a month later the Jerusalem District Court approved a request made by Leifer's attorneys, allowing them to contest the psychiatric experts.
Attorney Yehuda Freed added at this stage it is not possible to launch another appeal since this is an interim decision. "When a decision is made on her extradition, we intend to appeal both the extradition and the ruling that finds her fit for trial."
The hearing on her extradition is set to be held on July 20.
24 may 2020
Hodaya Monsonego, 25, who is said to be cognitively impaired, faces a criminal trial after she was detained last August with another Israeli national at an airport in Lima with 28 kilos of cocaine in her luggage
An Israeli woman with "special needs", jailed in Peru on suspicion of drug smuggling, was on Sunday released to house arrest and will be staying with a local Jewish family while awaiting trial.
Hodaya Monsonego, 25, who is said to be cognitively impaired according to her family, was arrested with another Israeli national approximately nine months ago at an airport in Lima, carrying 28 kilograms of cocaine.
The authorities still have not set a date for the opening hearing and Israel's justice ministry still works to persuade Peru's officials to grand the woman a pardon.
Her family claimed that smugglers took advantage of her due to her cognitive disability and the drugs did not belong to her. The family said Hodaya was travelling through Spain when she met a group of people, who offered her to fly to Latin America and exploited her.
Maor Monsonego, Hodaya's brother, said the coronavirus in South America, especially in Peru, worried his family and they were hoping the woman would soon be freed. "We were very much worried," said Maor. "We prayed that she would be let out of prison."
Tehila, Hodaya's sister, said that her family was very happy with the court's decision to put her under house arrest.
"We talked to Hodaya, and she is excited, she feels and sounds just fine. We do not know many details but as far as we are concerned, we are working on the pardon request," Tehila said.
President Reuven Rivlin thanked the Peruvian authorities on his official Twitter account for allowing Monsonego to say with the local family and expressed hope the move would be a "step towards her full release soon." tweet
In February Rivlin wrote a letter to Peru's President Martin Vizcarra, asking him to grant clemency to Monsonego, who suffers from “medical issues and has been diagnosed with limited cognitive ability” which impairs her judgment, according to a statement sent out by the president’s office.
Rivlin stressed that the young woman has no previous criminal record and that it is “reasonable to believe that her unique condition…led her to be involved in the alleged matter unintentionally.”
An Israeli woman with "special needs", jailed in Peru on suspicion of drug smuggling, was on Sunday released to house arrest and will be staying with a local Jewish family while awaiting trial.
Hodaya Monsonego, 25, who is said to be cognitively impaired according to her family, was arrested with another Israeli national approximately nine months ago at an airport in Lima, carrying 28 kilograms of cocaine.
The authorities still have not set a date for the opening hearing and Israel's justice ministry still works to persuade Peru's officials to grand the woman a pardon.
Her family claimed that smugglers took advantage of her due to her cognitive disability and the drugs did not belong to her. The family said Hodaya was travelling through Spain when she met a group of people, who offered her to fly to Latin America and exploited her.
Maor Monsonego, Hodaya's brother, said the coronavirus in South America, especially in Peru, worried his family and they were hoping the woman would soon be freed. "We were very much worried," said Maor. "We prayed that she would be let out of prison."
Tehila, Hodaya's sister, said that her family was very happy with the court's decision to put her under house arrest.
"We talked to Hodaya, and she is excited, she feels and sounds just fine. We do not know many details but as far as we are concerned, we are working on the pardon request," Tehila said.
President Reuven Rivlin thanked the Peruvian authorities on his official Twitter account for allowing Monsonego to say with the local family and expressed hope the move would be a "step towards her full release soon." tweet
In February Rivlin wrote a letter to Peru's President Martin Vizcarra, asking him to grant clemency to Monsonego, who suffers from “medical issues and has been diagnosed with limited cognitive ability” which impairs her judgment, according to a statement sent out by the president’s office.
Rivlin stressed that the young woman has no previous criminal record and that it is “reasonable to believe that her unique condition…led her to be involved in the alleged matter unintentionally.”
23 may 2020
Palestinian-American civil rights activist Alex Odeh
David Sheen, a friend of mine and a fellow journalist, published a great investigative story the other month. It tells a tale of murder, racism, duplicity, and justice denied.
In October 1985, Palestinian-American civil rights activist Alex Odeh was murdered by Zionist fanatics in California.
Odeh was blown to smithereens by a pipe bomb. His murderers have never been arrested.
Hours after Odeh’s brutal slaying, Irv Rubin, the national chairperson of the Jewish Defence League (JDL) at the time, justified the murder: “I have no tears for Mr. Odeh. He got exactly what he deserved.”
Despite a $1 million reward being announced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for information leading to the conviction of Odeh’s killers, no arrests have ever been made.
The police and the FBI’s main suspects have so far escaped justice. They are Baruch Ben-Yosef (born Andy Green) and Israel Fuchs (formerly known as Keith Fuchs).
They have been able to do so for one reason: Ben-Yosef/Green and Fuchs fled the US for Israel some months after the terrorist bombing.
In my view, they are being protected by the Israeli government.
The FBI is being obstructed in its investigation by the Israelis. On the flip side, it seems clear that the US government is not exactly pulling out all the stops.
No pressure is being put on Israel to bring Odeh’s killers to justice, to extradite them to stand trial in the US, or even to cooperate with the investigation in any way.
As Sheen detailed in his extensive piece, Odeh was a Palestinian born in the majority-Christian village of Jifna in the West Bank (close to a particularly extremist Israeli colony). He dedicated his life and activism in the US working for the Arab-American Discrimination Committee, or ADC.
He worked to build awareness of the plight of his people under Israeli occupation and to build bridges with US Jews. On the very day of his murder, he had been due to speak at the Congregation B’nai Tzedek, a Reform synagogue in Santa Ana.
Very clearly, his killers saw such efforts as a threat to their extremist Zionist agenda.
Due to Israel’s racist “Law of Return”, Fuchs and Ben-Yosef were able to claim citizenship in the country where they are now fugitives from the law. Israel has for decades stonewalled FBI attempts to bring the killers to justice.
This is all quite typical behaviour for Israel – certainly one of the world’s worst rogue states. Jewish extremists like Fuchs and Ben-Yosef are habitually harboured in Israel.
Israeli protection of these racist criminals is no aberration. Zionist extremists fleeing justice from all over the world know they will be safe in Israel. Grégory Chelli for example, the French hacker, known as Ulcan, is accused in a French court of making hoax phone calls, one of them lethal. Chelli was a member of the French branch of the JDL and fled to Israel before the court could try him.
Using weasel words, the official Israeli government has in the past stated its condemnation of the JDL’s openly racist founder, Meir Kahane. He won a seat in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in the 1980s, but his party was later banned.
In reality, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and his “moderate” ally Benny Gantz, along with his coalition government and allies in the so-called Labour Party, have all endorsed the racism of Kahane – even if they had a personal rivalry with him.
In practice, Kahane’s policy of driving all Palestinians out of the so-called “Land of Israel” by force is endorsed in one form or another by all Zionist parties in Israel. The differences between them are merely ones of emphasis, strategy, and personal rivalry.
Kahanist settlers occupying the West Bank today raise the slogan: “Today everybody knows Kahane was right!” Kahanism is the logical conclusion of Zionism.
Today, Odeh’s killers are being sheltered in the illegal Zionist colonies which occupy stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank.
Ben-Yosef is particularly brazen – as Sheen’s reporting shows. He is a high-profile lawyer in Israel, defending some of the most fanatical Zionist terrorists, religious extremists, and murderers.
He is also at the forefront of the “Temple Movement”, the Jewish extremist group that wants to blow up Al-Aqsa Mosque and raze the Dome of the Rock – which are some of Islam’s holiest sites, two important Palestinian national symbols – in order to build a synagogue.
David Sheen, a friend of mine and a fellow journalist, published a great investigative story the other month. It tells a tale of murder, racism, duplicity, and justice denied.
In October 1985, Palestinian-American civil rights activist Alex Odeh was murdered by Zionist fanatics in California.
Odeh was blown to smithereens by a pipe bomb. His murderers have never been arrested.
Hours after Odeh’s brutal slaying, Irv Rubin, the national chairperson of the Jewish Defence League (JDL) at the time, justified the murder: “I have no tears for Mr. Odeh. He got exactly what he deserved.”
Despite a $1 million reward being announced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for information leading to the conviction of Odeh’s killers, no arrests have ever been made.
The police and the FBI’s main suspects have so far escaped justice. They are Baruch Ben-Yosef (born Andy Green) and Israel Fuchs (formerly known as Keith Fuchs).
They have been able to do so for one reason: Ben-Yosef/Green and Fuchs fled the US for Israel some months after the terrorist bombing.
In my view, they are being protected by the Israeli government.
The FBI is being obstructed in its investigation by the Israelis. On the flip side, it seems clear that the US government is not exactly pulling out all the stops.
No pressure is being put on Israel to bring Odeh’s killers to justice, to extradite them to stand trial in the US, or even to cooperate with the investigation in any way.
As Sheen detailed in his extensive piece, Odeh was a Palestinian born in the majority-Christian village of Jifna in the West Bank (close to a particularly extremist Israeli colony). He dedicated his life and activism in the US working for the Arab-American Discrimination Committee, or ADC.
He worked to build awareness of the plight of his people under Israeli occupation and to build bridges with US Jews. On the very day of his murder, he had been due to speak at the Congregation B’nai Tzedek, a Reform synagogue in Santa Ana.
Very clearly, his killers saw such efforts as a threat to their extremist Zionist agenda.
Due to Israel’s racist “Law of Return”, Fuchs and Ben-Yosef were able to claim citizenship in the country where they are now fugitives from the law. Israel has for decades stonewalled FBI attempts to bring the killers to justice.
This is all quite typical behaviour for Israel – certainly one of the world’s worst rogue states. Jewish extremists like Fuchs and Ben-Yosef are habitually harboured in Israel.
Israeli protection of these racist criminals is no aberration. Zionist extremists fleeing justice from all over the world know they will be safe in Israel. Grégory Chelli for example, the French hacker, known as Ulcan, is accused in a French court of making hoax phone calls, one of them lethal. Chelli was a member of the French branch of the JDL and fled to Israel before the court could try him.
Using weasel words, the official Israeli government has in the past stated its condemnation of the JDL’s openly racist founder, Meir Kahane. He won a seat in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in the 1980s, but his party was later banned.
In reality, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and his “moderate” ally Benny Gantz, along with his coalition government and allies in the so-called Labour Party, have all endorsed the racism of Kahane – even if they had a personal rivalry with him.
In practice, Kahane’s policy of driving all Palestinians out of the so-called “Land of Israel” by force is endorsed in one form or another by all Zionist parties in Israel. The differences between them are merely ones of emphasis, strategy, and personal rivalry.
Kahanist settlers occupying the West Bank today raise the slogan: “Today everybody knows Kahane was right!” Kahanism is the logical conclusion of Zionism.
Today, Odeh’s killers are being sheltered in the illegal Zionist colonies which occupy stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank.
Ben-Yosef is particularly brazen – as Sheen’s reporting shows. He is a high-profile lawyer in Israel, defending some of the most fanatical Zionist terrorists, religious extremists, and murderers.
He is also at the forefront of the “Temple Movement”, the Jewish extremist group that wants to blow up Al-Aqsa Mosque and raze the Dome of the Rock – which are some of Islam’s holiest sites, two important Palestinian national symbols – in order to build a synagogue.
21 may 2020
The prosecution charges Igor Chepikov, 54, with stabbing his partner Tatiana Haikin and dismembering her body to hide evidence; he had been imprisoned for domestic violence in the past
A man was indicted at the Tel Aviv District Court for stabbing his partner to death and dismembering her body earlier this month.
He had previously served time in prison for domestic assault.
According to the indictment papers, on May 1 at 6 pm, Igor Chepikov and his partner Tatiana Haikin were at their home in Bat Yam. Later that evening, Chepikov got drunk and an argument broke out between the two.
On the night between Friday and Saturday (May 2), Chepikov stabbed Haikin with a knife in at least one time in the chest, dismembered her body and threw the parts in the garbage, to hide the evidence and obstruct the investigation.
On Sunday, May 3, Chepikov called the police to his home, where they found her headless body in the kitchen.
Chepkiov one of the arresting officers that he had killed Haikin. According to him, both were in a relationship for the last ten years and had lived together for five.
later, Chepikov denied that he had killed her, stating that he had woken up to find her bloody corpse in the kitchen. He went on to state that he went down to a supermarket to buy vodka, where a friend told him to get rid of the body.
He had previously served time in prison for domestic violence.
A man was indicted at the Tel Aviv District Court for stabbing his partner to death and dismembering her body earlier this month.
He had previously served time in prison for domestic assault.
According to the indictment papers, on May 1 at 6 pm, Igor Chepikov and his partner Tatiana Haikin were at their home in Bat Yam. Later that evening, Chepikov got drunk and an argument broke out between the two.
On the night between Friday and Saturday (May 2), Chepikov stabbed Haikin with a knife in at least one time in the chest, dismembered her body and threw the parts in the garbage, to hide the evidence and obstruct the investigation.
On Sunday, May 3, Chepikov called the police to his home, where they found her headless body in the kitchen.
Chepkiov one of the arresting officers that he had killed Haikin. According to him, both were in a relationship for the last ten years and had lived together for five.
later, Chepikov denied that he had killed her, stating that he had woken up to find her bloody corpse in the kitchen. He went on to state that he went down to a supermarket to buy vodka, where a friend told him to get rid of the body.
He had previously served time in prison for domestic violence.
