Two arrested for throwing stone that killed Palmers

Palestinians from village near Hebron confessed to throwing the fatal stone that killed father, son, Shin Bet says.

By YAAKOV KATZ, TOVAH LAZAROFF
Funeral of Kiryat Arba car accident victims 311 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Funeral of Kiryat Arba car accident victims 311
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
The IDF and Israel Police this week arrested two Palestinians from the village of Halhoul near Hebron, who allegedly threw a rock that killed Asher Hillel Palmer and his son as they drove near Kiryat Arba last month, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Thursday.
The two Palestinians confessed during questioning to throwing the rock at Palmer’s car on September 23, which caused him to run off the road and flip over, killing him and his infant son, Yonatan.
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Three additional Palestinians were arrested, who admitted to stealing Palmer’s gun after the fatal crash. The Shin Bet retrieved the weapon during the course of the investigation.
Initially, the police and the IDF had downplayed the possibility that stones had been thrown at the scene of the accident near Kiryat Arba, but after an Israel Police investigation, the Defense Ministry recognized Palmer and his son as victims of terrorism.
But settlers believe that the army deliberately misled them and the media, so as not to further inflame the region because the attack occurred on the same day that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivered his speech on unilateral Palestinian statehood to the United Nations.
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) called for spokespeople, and all those in the security forces who “deliberately deceived” the public, to be fired.
Settler leaders said they welcomed the IDF’s determined pursuit of the killers.
The National Union’s chairman Ya’acov Katz and MK Uri Ariel said that the capture of the Palestinian suspects proved that the stonethrowing was Arab terrorism designed to kill, and was not the meaningless activity of children.
Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip said he thanked the IDF and added that he hoped the army was planning to take this kind of threat more seriously so that it could prevent future incidents.
Kiryat Arba Council head Melachi Levinger said he hoped that their capture would calm the area and restore a sense of security to its residents.
The IDF action improves security as thousands of visitors are expected to flock to the nearby Cave of the Patriarchs during the upcoming holidays, Levinger said.