Israel indicts Palestinian, 16, in killing of Dafna Meir

Teen murdered mother of six in her West Bank home last month, fled scene and watched movie with family, according to charge sheet

By Judah Ari Gross 22 February 2016, 1:48 pm

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Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.

Morad Bader Abdullah Adais, found guilty of the January 17, 2016, killing of Dafna Meir. (Courtesy)

An Israeli military court indicted on Monday the Palestinian teenager who confessed to killing Dafna Meir in her West Bank home last month.

Morad Bader Abdullah Adais, 16, was arrested in Beit Amra on January 19, two days after Meir’s killing in the nearby Jewish settlement of Otniel. During an interrogation with the Shin Bet security service, the teenager confessed to the crime, the agency said.

Adais has been charged with killing the 38-year-old mother of four and foster mother of two in the entryway to her home, located just south of Hebron.

He is suspected of entering Meir’s home and killing her before fleeing the scene. Three of Meir’s children were home when she was killed, and one, 17-year-old Renana, gave security forces a description of the killer.

Dafna Meir, left, with her husband Natan Meir in an undated picture posted on Facebook. (Screen capture: Facebook)

The investigation indicated Adais waited for Meir to come out of her front door and then attacked her “plunging the knife into her stomach.”

He tried to then retrieve the weapon in order to attack Meir’s children, but Meir wrestled with the attacker and prevented him from doing so. The stabber fled the scene.

According to the charge sheet, after fleeing Otniel, the teen returned home, washed the blood off his arms and watched a movie with his family.

He was arrested hours later.

Meir, who had herself been adopted as a teenager, worked as a nurse in the neurosurgery department of Soroka Medical Center, Beesheba. She was also a premarital counselor for brides.

Prior to carrying out the deadly attack, Adais watched “Palestinian television broadcasts which portrayed Israel as ‘killing young Palestinians,’” a statement from the Shin Bet said after he was captured.

“On the day of the murder, while under the influence of the programs he had been exposed to on Palestinian television, the minor decided to commit a stabbing attack with the goal of murdering a Jew,” the statement read.

Israeli officials and watchdog groups have long claimed Palestinian media promotes terrorist activity, teaches anti-Semitism and incites hatred of Israelis, especially in its programming for children. They claim the current wave of violent attacks by Palestinians on Israelis has been spurred by videos, songs, photos, and other content, mostly on social media, that inspires would-be terrorists.