Lawyer for group bankrolling Jewish terrorists running coalition talks for Ben Gvir
Chanamel Dorfman is Otzma Yehudit’s representative in negotiations with Netanyahu; new MK in same party hires spokesman who was arrested for ransacking Palestinian’s warehouse
The man representing the far-right Otzma Yehudit faction in coalition negotiations with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is the legal adviser for an organization that raises funds for Jewish terror convicts.
In an exposé that aired Monday, Channel 13 revealed that Chanamel Dorfman’s name and title are listed on forms submitted by the Shlom Asiraich group in order to become a recognized NGO in Israel.
Shlom Asiraich in a recent flier boasted of having raised over $43,000 last year for convicts such as Yosef Chaim Ben David, who beat and burned to death 16-year-old Palestinian Muhammad Abu Khdeir in 2014; Amiram Ben Uliel, who firebombed a home in the Palestinian village of Duma, leading to the death of parents Riham and Sa’ad Dawabshe along with their one-year-old boy Ali in 2015; and Jack Tytell, who murdered a Palestinian taxi driver in East Jerusalem and a Palestinian shepherd in the West Bank in 1997.
Shlom Asiraich’s activities have been so extreme that even the far-right Honenu organization, which provides legal support to Jewish terror suspects, has distanced itself from the Dorfman-tied group.
Dorfman declined to comment on his activity for Shlom Asiraich when approached by Channel 13, but Otzma Yehudit defended him, calling him “a talented and sought-after attorney who represents a diverse range of organizations.”
“We are proud to receive the support of his services,” the faction said in a statement, which went on to charge that the network didn’t care to conduct the same type of background check for the advisers employed by Yesh Atid MK Ram Ben Barak.
The outgoing chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee briefly came under fire last year when one of his aides was photographed with a former grand mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine who has expressed support for suicide bombings.
Otzma Yehudit, which is one of three far-right parties that make up the Religious Zionism alliance, did not comment on the nature of Shlom Asiraich’s work.
Otzma Yehudit’s chairman Itamar Ben Gvir, who is vying to become the next public security minister, referred to Dorfman as his “right-hand” man in his thank-you speech given after Religious Zionism won 14 seats in the November 1 election.
Also on the Otzma Yehudit payroll is Elisha Yered, who the Haaretz daily reported on Monday has been hired to become incoming MK Limor Son Har-Melech’s spokesman.
לימור סון הר מלך, שתושבע השבוע כחברת כנסת מטעם מפלגת 'עוצמה יהודית', תעסיק את אלישע ירד בתפקיד דובר. ירד הוא מפעילי נוער הגבעות הבולטים, מתגורר ברמת מגרון ושימש בשנתיים האחרונות כדובר הגבעות ובנושאי התיישבות נוספים. הוא יעזוב את המרעה ויעבוד ממסדרונות הכנסת. צילום: אברהם שפירא pic.twitter.com/96uvFJAbhs
— יהונתן גוטליב (@yonatanGottlieb) November 13, 2022
Yered has long been regarded as a spokesman for hilltop youth — ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers who build illegal outposts in the West Bank and often clash with Palestinians and Israeli security forces. He lives in the illegal Ramat Migron outpost in the northern West Bank, which the IDF has declared a closed military zone.
The 22-year-old was arrested in August for looting a warehouse in a neighboring Palestinian village. The charges against him alleged that the break-in was nationalistically motivated. A judge ordered his release to temporary house arrest, but the case against him is ongoing.
Yered declined Haaretz’s request for comment. But he told the right-wing Arutz 7 news outlet that “after years of working in public relations from ‘the office’ on the hilltop or from the pasture with the sheep via cellphone, we will have to get used to working in the halls of the Knesset… I hope not to screw up too much, pray for me.”
