Gabriel Dwait
Photo: Yonat Atlas
Dwait family petitions court: Let us know how Gabriel was killed
Family of Ethiopian immigrant whose body was recovered from Lebanon petitions court to investigate his death, says condition of identification documents retrieved from his body proves he did not drown
The family of deceased Ethiopian immigrant Gabriel Dwait, whose body was returned
to Israel
in an exchange deal with Hizbullah in October, petitioned the Beersheba Magistrates' Court Monday to launch an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of their son. In its petition, the Dwait family claims that the state was remiss in its investigation into Gabriel’s death, and had, furthermore, kept important information hidden from them
Rest in Peace?
Unknown assailants destroy, spray-paint swastikas on tombstone of Gabriel Dwait, Israeli civilian whose body was included in recent swap deal with Hizbullah
State officials maintain that Gabriel had drowned off the Haifa coast, and that his body was swept by the current to Lebanon, where it was captured by Hizbullah. The body was returned to Israel in October 2007, along with the ID card and passport that Dwait had on his person.
The Dwait family claims that it is impossible for these documents to have remained completely dry if Gabriel indeed had drowned.
The family, furthermore, claims that state officials never informed them where Gabriel’s body had been found, even though they were in possession of that information for quite some time.
Attorney Yael Michllis, Head of the Legal Department for the Tabka Center for Legal Services to the Ethiopian Minority, told Ynet that “we lodged the petition with the Cohen-Harel Law Firm in light of the many questions that still remain unanswered concerning Gabriel’s death. The evidence that was presented to the family—be it forensic or relating to documentation—does not mesh with the official state version of what happened to Gabriel.”
“We had initially tried to arrange a meeting with the pertinent state officials, but were refused such a meeting. We then decided to petition the court to investigate this case. If our petition is denied, we will take it all the way to the Supreme Court,” says Michllis.
Attorney Udi Erev, who represents the Dwait family, said in reference to the autopsy report on Gabriel “An official cause of death has not yet been determined, the report is only preliminary. We are still waiting on the Defense Ministry to fill in some blanks. This, along with the dry recovered documents, raises some major questions, which is what led us to petition the court.”
