Despite having confessed off-record, 29-year-old Arafat Irfaiya did not confess to the murder and rape of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher since being arrested in March 2019.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB, TAMAR URIEL-BEERIArafat Irfaiya, Ori Ansbacher's murderer, brought to court(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Arafat Irfaiya, the Palestinian man from Hebron who was arrested and accused of murdering 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher, admitted to the murder on Sunday afternoon, over a year after committing the crime, explaining that his reasoning was nationalistically motivated.The counsel for the defense had said during the court hearing that Irfaiya confessed to the murder and rape, but when the judge spoke directly to the defense, he did not respond.According to a summary of the March 2019 indictment, Irfaiya crossed into Israel from the West Bank illegally with a general intent to kill a Jew out of revenge for his perception of Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians, but with no specific plan.The indictment said that he saw 19-year-old Ansbacher of Tekoa and decided to kill her.He stabbed her three times and dragged her to an even more abandoned spot. Next, he stabbed her a few more times and stuffed her mouth with her scarf so she could not scream, said the indictment. After that, he raped her, broke her telephone so she could not call for help and left her to die.Even before the March 2019 indictment, the Palestinian had confessed to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and reconstructed the crime for them, but defendant’s have the right to retract or deny their confessions in court and to attack confessions as being coerced.Irfaiya’s Sunday confession in open court, against his lawyer’s advice, effectively ends his case and ensures his conviction.The brutal murder shocked Israel, leading to a wave of protests demanding that terrorists receive death sentences as well as an outpouring of grief over the death of Ansbacher.A joint operation by the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Border Police’s counterterrorism unit, Yamam, led to Irfaiya’s arrest when they found him in an abandoned building near Ramallah.Soon after investigations began, the district psychiatrist evaluated Irfaiya and found him fit to stand trial. He had originally undergone a psychiatric evaluation at the request of his defense attorney.
