Eddie Dribben, one of the first settlers in Kiryat Araba and Hebron, passed away Thursday morning at age 85. Malachi Levinger wrote in his Facebook page that Dribben was a dedicated man who brought to life with his own ten fingers the industrial park of the City of the Patriarchs. Dribben remained dedicated and focused despite the tragedy that struck him and his wife Sara, when their son Dov was murdered by local Arabs in 1998.

Dov Dribben was ambushed by eight Arabs as he was working near the Jewish community of Havat Maon. At the time, then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a news conference in Jerusalem with visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said that “this young man was killed in cold blood,” and declared that “it’s straightforward murder.” But in 2004, a military court acquitted the central suspect in the Dov Dribben murder, Ahmed Dababsa, who was also found not guilty on a second count of attacking and injuring Dribben’s two friends, Yehoshafat Tor and Efraim Perl.

Eddie Dribben, a former Texas Ranger who made aliyah in 1954, reacted with shock to the court’s decision, saying, “I’ve spent all my years in Israel farming and herding sheep right alongside the Arabs. My Arabic is as good as my Hebrew. Only someone who doesn’t have a close familiarity with the inner workings of the Arab clans and doesn’t understand that such a decision to murder a Jew is reached by an entire clan and everyone knows about it, could make such a ruling. It is plain stupid.”

Eddie Dribben’s funeral will leave his home in the industrial park of Kiryat Arba at 3:30 PM Thursday, on its way to the Cave of Machpela plaza, where eulogies will begin at 4 PM. The burial at the old Jewish cemetery of Hebron is scheduled for 5 PM.

Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Habayit Hayehudi) on Tuesday issued a directive changing the protocol of evacuation of Jewish residents from illegal structures in Judea and Samaria. Following evacuation operations by security forces on Monday in the community of Eish Kodesh and on Tuesday in Mitzpeh Avichai near Kiryat Arba, Ben-Dahan sent a letter to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) instructing them that, starting Tuesday, the new invasion protocol in the evacuation of illegal structures must be approved by Ben-Dahan before it is carried out.

The protocol for these invasions and evacuations under former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) permitted COGAT to evacuate illegal structures without government authorization in the first 60 days following their construction.

On Tuesday morning COGAT inspectors demolished temporary units that had been erected on Avichai hill in commemoration of the murdered teen girl Halel Ariel hy”d. Her family arrived at the area but were pushed off by police.

Following the evacuation, Halel’s mother issued a statement saying: “Some two months after the murder of our daughter Halel I woke up to another ordinary morning, trying to carry on with my life from within the loss. To cry and to live. Another ordinary day. Suddenly, an announcement: they’re evacuating Mitzpeh Avichai! We rushed to the area. There, at the spot where the terrorist had infiltrated, police forces were standing. The gate was locked, personal effects were outside. No people. The site had been evacuated.”

Halel’s mother added, “Two months after the murder, Halel is gone and the community that was built near that terrible site is also gone. A double destruction. All we want is to add building, increase the light. Today Halel was murdered a second time. Right now darkness is covering. We need so much strength to carry on. So much faith to fight the darkness. So much patience. God, please give us the strength to continue against the concealment inside the concealment [of the Divine].”

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council in his regular briefing Monday that recommendations offered by the so-called Middle East Quartet, comprising the US, Russia, the EU and the UN, on the way forward in the peace process have been ignored by Israel, pointing to a surge in Israeli settlement-related announcements and continuing demolitions of illegal Arab construction in Area C, which is under full israeli control. The Quartet’s recommendations include an end to Israel’s settlement policy and a halt to the PA’s incitement to violence.

Mladenov reported that a major threat to peace is the fact that since the beginning of July Israel has advanced plans for more than 1,000 housing units in eastern Jerusalem, which has been part of Israel proper for almost 50 years. He pointed to promised new apartments in Pisgat Ze’ev, Ramot, Har Homa, and Gilo, as well as to 735 units in Ma’ale Adumim and other Judea and Samaria communities as the culprits.

Mladenov also noted that Israel has published tenders, some new, for 323 units in eastern Jerusalem and reissued tenders for 42 units in Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, for which it also allocated more than $13 million in new funding.

The envoy had nothing to report on efforts to reduce anti-Semitic PA and Hamas incitement, so all must be well on that front. He did report violent incidents over the past month that included the extrajudicial execution by the Palestinian Security Forces of a man in custody; the firing of two rockets from Gaza, to which Israel responded by directing some 60 missiles and shells at 30 suspected military installations in Gaza; and the killing by the Israeli Security Forces of an Arab man who was reportedly under psychiatric care.

Turning to Gaza, Mladenov said that while progress has been made on reconstructing the physical damage since the ceasefire agreement two years ago, repairing the psychological damage of the conflict is “miles away” from being over. “We need a radical overhaul of how we deal with the problems of Gaza,” he said. He failed to mention the arrests and indictments by Israel of an international charity administrator and a UNDP employee, both of whom confessed to directing millions of dollars in international funds to the terrorist activities of Hamas — which may have had something to do with the fact that all those ruined buildings are yet to be rebuilt.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement in response to the envoy’s report, saying, “The UN envoy to the Middle East’s remarks to the Security Council distort history and international law and push peace farther away. Jews have been in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria for thousands of years and their presence there is not an obstacle to peace. The obstacle to peace is the unending attempt to deny the Jewish People’s connection to parts of their historic land and the obdurate refusal to recognize that they are not foreigners there. The claim that Jewish construction in Jerusalem is illegal is as absurd as the claim that American construction in Washington or French construction in Paris is illegal. The Palestinian demand that a future Palestinian state be ethnically cleansed of Jews is outrageous and the UN must condemn it instead of adopting it.”

Israeli forces entered the Palestinian Authority Arab village of Bani Naim after midnight Sunday night to level the home of the terrorist who stabbed 13-year-old Hallel Ariel, z’l, to death as she lay sleeping in her bed in Kiryat Arba just a few weeks ago.

IDF and security forces moving in to Palestinian Authority Arab village of Bani Naim to demolish the home of a terrorist. / HotNews

IDF engineers, backed by security and other Israeli forces demolished the home of Muhammad Taraiyre, in accordance with Israeli policy, which mandated the destruction of the family home of any Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist who murders an Israeli.

The eighth grader was stabbed dozens of times on the morning after having participated in a dance event organized by the local dance arts center in Kiryat Arba. Her bedroom was covered in blood by the time the security team reached her, witnesses said.

She passed away a few hours after the attack in Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, and was laid to rest in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron.

One of the Rapid Response Team security personnel who raced to the scene when the infiltrator’s presence was detected was also critically injured at the scene. Yehoshua Gilboa is a member of a famiy that has already lost two sons to terrorism, and is a volunteer with the Kiryat Arba security team.

Shuki Gilboa with his wife Shlomit, in their Kiryat Arba home. / TPS

Shuki Gilboa was stabbed by the attacker, and also sustained a bullet wound as the result of friendly fire during the clash with the terrorist. He ultimately lost the sight in his right eye as a result of the battle but doctors at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center were able to save his life.

The President of the Military Court of Appeals, Judge Col. Netanel Benisho, leveled sharp criticism at the IDF Central Command for issuing dozens of administrative restriction orders against Jews over the past year.

In July, Judge Col. Benisho ruled on an appeal filed by legal aid society Honenu Attorney Menasheh Yado regarding an administrative restrictive order served by the GOC of the Central Command against a Jewish youth residing at Givat Baladim, a hilltop community adjacent to Kochav HaShahar in the Binyamin region. The youth was banned from entering Judea and Samaria, except for Kiryat Arba, which meant he was prevented from tending his flock which he keeps in the area of Kochav HaShahar. The duration of the order was extended after it had expired once, which was the reason for the appeal.

More than 50 administrative restriction orders were issued by the GOC of the Central and Home Front Commands over the past year against Jewish youths.

Judge Col. Benisho accepted Yado’s argument that the Central Command systematically withholds the right to a hearing before serving the administrative orders against Jewish subjects, and called on the authorities to make sure that the right to a hearing is observed.

The right to a hearing is granted by law and may be revoked only under unusual circumstances, when an individual poses an immediate danger. Attorney Yado argued that the unusual had become the rule and the Central Command admitted that not one of the Jews who had been served with an administrative order over the past few years had received the opportunity of a hearing before the order was served, including in cases of extending an existing order.

Judge Col. Benisho wrote in his decision that “the commanding officer must be conscientious in granting [detainees] the opportunity to plead their case, prior to serving them with restriction orders, unless there is significant cause to grant this right only after the order has been served. … Closely adhering to the above-mentioned guidelines is especially advisable when dealing with the extension of an order, as it is in this case. In such situations it is reasonable to assume that the suspicions raised by the representative of the commanding officer are weaker. Therefore it is expected that there must be even more diligence in correctly implementing the right to appeal.”

Judge Col. Benisho also called on lawmakers to require mandatory appearance in court in every case of an administrative restriction order, as is currently done in the case of an administrative detention order: a deliberation must be held within 24 hours at a district court.

The judge also recommended to the Knesset: “It would be proper for lawmakers to institute a mandatory judicial review similar to the one existing concerning administrative detention orders.”

Judge Col. Benisho also ruled that, after “lengthy consideration,” the order currently being appealed will not be canceled, due to confidential information provided by the Shabak. However, he also demanded that in order to extend the order again, the army and the ISA must present “intelligence information which fundamentally alters the evaluation of dangerousness,” or there must be “a fundamental change in the security situation of the district.”

Honenu Attorney Yado said in a statement: “This is the first step in limiting the discretion of a GOC in issuing [administrative restriction] orders. We have no doubt that many of the orders are disproportionate and will not stand the test of a [trial in civilian court]. Concerning the procedure, the court reminded the GOC that young residents of Judea and Samaria also have legal rights to a court deliberation, and compelled the GOC to hold hearings prior to serving [administrative restriction] orders, something which the GOC, contrary to the requirement of the law, had systematically neglected over the past year.”

By Tzvi Lev/TPS

Jerusalem (TPS) – Shuki Gilboa served as a volunteer on the Kiryat Arba security team and was seriously injured while responding to the terror attack on June 30 in which 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel was killed.

“It took time for the IDF to arrive,” Gilboa recounted during an interview with Tazpit Press Service (TPS). “Our security team was the first on the scene as we all live close by.”

Gilboa was on the way to meet his wife when he received an urgent notification from the Kiryat Arba security team that an Arab was spotted climbing the fence and was inside Kiryat Arba. Gilboa picked up his M16 rifle and ran to the Kiryat Arba Yeshiva High School, which he assumed to be the most likely target of a potential terrorist attack.

After arriving at the school and understanding that it was secure, he began to search the surrounding area in coordination with the rest of the security team. During the search, another member of the security team heard strange noises coming from the Ariel house.

As the security team was about to enter the house, Hallel’s father, Rabbi Amichai Ariel, arrived and entered the house with Shuki and Chanoch Kahane, another member of the security team. Rabbi Ariel immediately ran to the children’s bedroom where Hallel was sleeping and found his daughter lying in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds.

Gilboa heard Rabbi Ariel scream, “They killed her!” and realized that the terrorist was still in the house.

“I realized that the terrorist was still inside,” Gilboa told TPS. “I turned to report it on the radio when I noticed a black image out of the corner of my eye.”

The “black image” was in fact the terrorist hiding in Hallel’s bedroom who then attacked Gilboa. Chanoch Kahane then ran into the room and fired two shots at the terrorist, the first of which hit the terrorist in the back and the second entered Gilboa’s head above his ear and exited through his left eye.

Gilboa remained fully conscious and was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, where doctors worked feverishly to save his eye but to no avail. Gilboa lost all sight in his left eye and will have to use a prosthesis for the rest of his life.

Gilboa was amazed to receive support from people of all walks of life after suffering the injury.

“The support I received was incredible,” he said. “So many people came to visit me, people whom I did not even know.”

“The commander of IDF Central Command visited, along with three government ministers,” he continued. “People who do not even live in Israel, people who just happened to be in Israel at the time, visited me in the hospital.”

Gilboa, who had served in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit and has trained community security teams since his army service, emphasized the crucial importance of the communal security team.

“Today, the citizens are the ones who engage the terrorists,” he stressed. “We are the first line of defense and we are the first to respond 90% of the time.”

“The fact that we do not have quality equipment or training is a very serious issue,” he added. “We are the first on the scene, yet we have extremely shoddy gear and almost never train.”

Gilboa also expressed how disappointed he was in the media coverage of the story.

“When they broadcasted Hallel’s funeral on television, they showed a split screen that featured the terrorists’ joyful mother, who was celebrating her son becoming a martyr. It sends a message of weakness,” he contended. “There should have been a split screen of the terrorist’s house being demolished without any petitions to the Supreme Court. Only then will the world respect us.”

Gilboa’s wife, Shlomit, is an operating room medic at Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem, which Gilboa says is a great help since she understands all the medical terminology, but he admits that the rehabilitation process is difficult. “I have been in a lot of pain and there are new things I have to get used to,” he said. “It can mean sleepless nights and it isn’t easy.”

Some 200 Jews gathered Tuesday morning by the entrance to the Temple Mount compound, to commemorate Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, HY”D, who was murdered two weeks ago by an Arab terrorist in her bedroom in Kiryat Arba. Police then permitted some 50 to enter the Temple Mount, the largest group to ascend there this year—under heavy guard.

Following negotiation with the grieving family, Jerusalem police agreed to a more flexible visit, permitting the Jewish group a longer stay and not attempting to silence the uttering of blessings or saying Amen—as opposed to the 15-person limit in normal times and the complete prohibition of even the appearance of prayers or blessings.

The Muslims at the site cursed out the group and made repeated references to Allah, who is, they said, great.

One Jewish person was arrested earlier, according to Temple Mount activists, for the sin of closing his eyes and placing his hand over his eyes — an obvious criminal inclination to recite the Shema Israel.

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel and MK Bezalel Smotrich of Habayit Hayehudi, and MKs Yehuda Glick and Oren Hazan (Likud) participated in the event at the foot of Temple Mount, but were not allowed t ascend, by order of the prime minister. The ceremony at the entrance to the holy site ended in dancing and singing.

The murdered child’s parents said they’d like to change the name of the gate from “Mugrabim Gate,” after the north-African Arab dwellers in the area before 1967, to “Hallel Gate,” after their daughter and after the Hallel prayer which accompanies every religious Jewish holiday rejoicing.