Jerusalem court sentences Palestinian Arab terrorist Arafat Irfaiya to life plus 20 years for the rape and murder of Ori Ansbacher in Jerusalem.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday morning sentenced Palestinian Arab terrorist Arafat Irfaiya to life imprisonment plus 20 years for the rape and murder of an Israeli teenager in 2019.

Irfaiya attacked Ori Ansbacher, a resident of the Israeli town of Tekoa in Judea, in the woods on the outskirts of Jerusalem. During his interrogation, Irfaiya admitted that he targeted Ansbacher because she was Jewish.

Although Ansbacher fought back against Irfaiya, he overcame her, stabbed her multiple times and raped her.

The terrorist comes from a well-known Hamas-supporting family in Hebron and has served time in Israeli prison for offenses of incitement to terrorism. He infiltrated Jerusalem by posing as a religious Jew, donning a skullcap that he had purchased several weeks earlier.

He was captured by a joint IDF, Shin Bet and Yamam counter-terrorism force which found him hiding in an abandoned building near Ramallah’s Jamal Abdel-Nasser Mosque.

Irfaiya was also ordered to pay 250,000 shekels ($72,600) to Ansbacher’s family, and an additional 75,000 shekels ($21,800) to each of her parents and siblings.

The court dismissed Irfaiya’s lawyer’s claim he was not competent to stand trial.

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Jerusalem District Court orders another psychiatric opinion for Palestinian who stands to earn almost $1.5 million for the killing.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

A Jerusalem court rejected a request for a verdict and sentence in the trial of a Palestinian who admitted to raping and murdering a young Israeli woman last year, Kan Radio reported on Sunday.

Arafat Irfayia from the city of Hebron confessed at his trial last month and admitted that he had raped 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher before knifing her to death.

Ansbacher’s body was found Feb. 7, 2019 with multiple stab wounds over all parts of her body in a forest on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem shortly after she was reported missing.

Terror victim Ori Ansbacher. (Courtesy)

The court agreed to a defense request for another psychiatric opinion despite a psychiatric evaluation submitted to the court last year that Irfayia was found fit to stand trial.

The terrorist had reconstructed the killing for Israel investigators. He says he left his home in Hebron with the express intention of killing a Jew.

“It would seem that the court is insistent on finding Irfayia’s psychological problem,” said Maurice Hirsch, a former senior military prosecutor in the IDF.

“He confessed. He should be convicted and sentenced to the mandatory life sentence,” Hirsch told World Israel News.

Palestinian social media continued to praise Irfayia Sunday, claiming that he had “killed a Zionist female soldier” and calling him a “heroic prisoner.”

The brutal murder of Ansbacher helped drive the Israeli government to enforce earlier legislation to deduct the amount the Palestinian Authority (PA) pays to jailed terrorists or their families (in the event the terrorist was killed in the course of the attack) using tax money Israel transfers to the PA on a monthly basis.

However, the PA rejected all calls against the pay-for-slay practice and emphasized that it would continue paying stipends to all prisoners, including those convicted of murdering Israelis. The PA has made it clear making such payments is its highest priority.

According to the the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the 29-year-old Arafat Irfaiya is expected to receive over 5 million shekels ($1.5 million) from the PA by the time he reaches the age of 75.

Hirsch, one of the author’s of Israel’s law to ban financial support for terrorism, says Defense Minister Benny Gantz  stepped in and blocked implementation of the law against pay-for-slay.

“The law was implemented in 2019, following the murder of Ori, but has not been implemented since the beginning of 2020,” said Hirsch, who is now Director of Legal Strategies at Palestine Media Watch, an NGO that monitors what Palestinian officials say in Arabic.

Hirsch pointed out that Israel’s cabinet has not made any decision and the tens of millions in terror rewards paid by the PA so far in 2020 have not been deducted.

“When the Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz decided to freeze the new anti-terror legislation in Judea and Samaria, he made a huge mistake,” Hirsch said.

“That legislation, which criminalized the provision of services, including carrying out banking transactions, in order to facilitate the payment of rewards for carrying out acts of terrorism, was one of the most substantial steps taken to date to wipe out the Pay-for-Slay policy.”

“I sincerely hope that the temporary reprieve given by Gantz to the PA and the terrorists, will quickly be rescinded,” Hirsch said.

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A psychiatric evaluation of Arafat Irfaiya concludes he is mentally competent and responsible for his actions in murdering Ori Ansbacher.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A psychiatric evaluation of Arafat Irfaiya submitted to the Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday found that the confessed killer of Jewish teenager Ori Ansbacher is mentally fit to stand trial.

The evaluation, carried out by the district psychiatrist, was ordered by the court last month upon the request of the terrorist’s lawyer. He had claimed that his client, who raped Ansbacher as well as stabbing her repeatedly all over her body, suffered from psychological problems.

Irfaiya himself told police that he killed Miss Ansbacher for nationalistic motives. On February 7, he had taken a knife with him when he left his Hebron home and came to Jerusalem because he “wanted to harm Jews.”

When he came across Ansbacher, who was taking a break from her work as a National Service volunteer at the Yaelim Center for Children and Youth at Risk, he “attacked her with harsh violence and cruelty,” according to the indictment.  He then fled the scene, but was caught a day later by IDF special forces near Ramallah.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had personally told the Ansbacher family during his shiva (week of mourning) visit that their daughter’s murder had been an act of terrorism and not a mad, criminal act. When the indictment was published in March, they said they had been comforted by the “big hug” they had received from the Jewish people after suffering “the event…that is not a private occurrence but a national one.”

Hundreds of people attended Ansbacher’s funeral, where she was eulogized as a sensitive, kind person who loved to help others, sing, dance and write. She had in fact gone to the forest on the day of her death with a pad of paper and a pen, to be alone in nature, which she loved, in order to write down her thoughts, something that she often did, according to her friends in national service.

Ori means “light,” and many spoke of how she had been “a child of light” after her passing.

Family friends set up a crowdfunding campaign a few weeks after the murder to help the family financially. Over a million shekels were donated in just a few days.

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The court’s decision overturned the original ruling, when the judge rejected the request for such an assessment.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Palestinian terrorist who raped and murdered 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher nearly three months ago will be allowed to undergo psychiatric evaluation to see if he is mentally competent to stand trial, the Walla! news site reported Monday.

This decision of the Jerusalem District Court overturned the ruling made during the terrorist’s initial remand hearing, when the judge rejected the request for such an assessment.

The 29-year-old resident of Hebron was charged with the brutal stabbing and sexual assault of the Israeli teenager in a Jerusalem forest on February 7 based on DNA, recovery of the murder weapon and other evidence, and his own confession. He was caught only a few days after fleeing the scene.

Irfaiya’s home was demolished by the IDF 10 days ago, after the High Court of Justice rejected an appeal to stay the order based on the killer’s mental state.

“The petitioners did not specify at all what mental defect the terrorist is suffering from, how severe it is and how it affects his actions,” the judges stated. “Moreover, even during the terrorist’s arrest proceedings, the Jerusalem District Court rejected his request for a psychiatric examination by the district psychiatrist, since insufficient evidentiary basis was laid before it to justify it.”

Notwithstanding lack of evidence, the three district court judges overseeing the hearings in Irfaiya’s indictment have now decided to send him for an official assessment of his mental state.

No Palestinian terror group claimed credit for Irfaiya’s act, although he stated at the time that he had nationalistic motives for killing Ansbacher. The reported reason for the distancing is the element of sexual assault.

As Palestinian Prisoners Club Director Qadura Fares told Ha’aretz after Irfaiya was caught, “That would make the case a criminal one, as far as we’re concerned, and we object to anyone committing a criminal offense trying to pass it off as a nationalist act.”

Irfaiya’s family has reportedly not asked for legal aid from Palestinian authorities, and he is being represented by a public defender.

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The family of murderer and rapist Arafat Irfaiya was notified on Wednesday by the IDF that their home will be demolished as part of the terrorist’s punishment for his crimes.

By World Israel News Staff

On Wednesday, the IDF served notice to Arafat Irfaiya’s next of kin that the family home will be demolished in response to the brutal murder and rape of Ori Ansbacher, an Israeli teen whom the terrorist killed in a Jerusalem area forest earlier this year.

According to Israeli authorities, Irfaiya is the indisputable primary suspect based on DNA evidence discovered at the scene of the crime, where he raped and stabbed Ansbacher to death.

Security forces not only recovered Irfaiya’s DNA, they also discovered the murder weapon, a knife and other evidence linking the suspect to the crime, which the Shin Bet identified as “nationalistically motivated,” a legalistic euphemism for terrorism.

Irfaiya both confessed to the murder and reconstructed the crime for authorities, recounting his departure from Hebron with a knife and his surreptitious entry into Jerusalem, which he pulled off by donning a Jewish skullcap that he purchased weeks earlier.

Ansbacher’s naked body was found with stab wounds in the Ein Yael forest.

The IDF, Shin Bet and Yamam counter-terrorism force caught Irfaiya hiding in an abandoned building near Ramallah’s Jamal Abdel-Nasser Mosque.

Demolition of terrorists’ homes is designed to deter future crimes and represents a practice that predates the establishment of the State of Israel.

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