Shin Bet: Dafna Meir’s Killer ‘Brainwashed’ by Arab Media

Morad Badar Abdallah Adias, the 16-year-old terrorist murderer of Mrs. Dafna Meir, Hy”d, told interrogators that he was “heavily influenced” by anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement in Arab media, the Shin Bet announced Sunday. Israel Radio quoted a Shin Bet official as saying that Adias had been fed a steady diet of anti-Israel content for months before he decided to kill Jews.

Adias, investigators said, had viewed anti-Israel propaganda for several hours before leaving his home in the village of Beit Amra, adjacent to Otniel, with the express intent of murdering Jews. Commenting on the revelation, the Shin Bet official said that “the results of this attack once again show the terrible consequences of the wild incitement to murder Jews and Israelis that is such a common theme in Palestinian media, which incites lone wolf attackers such as this to commit murder and terror attacks.”

Three of Meir’s six children were home at the time of the attack. One of the children – a four year old – witnessed the entire incident; two older children hid in an inside room, with one of the children’s screams apparently keeping the Arab terrorist from entering the house.

Under questioning, the Palestinian youth described how he arrived at the entrance of Dafna Meir’s home and stabbed her several times. After that he fled the scene.

Adias was captured within a day and a half of the murder, after officials discovered security footage showing him inside the town and near the Meir family home at the time of the murder. The images clearly show Adias hiding behind a bush after the attack, and then running away. Last Sunday night, residents of Otniel were under lockdown for hours, because security officials feared that he was still in the town. Only later in the evening, after seeing the footage, did they realize that Adias had left the town. IDF soldiers searched Arab villages in the region throughout the night for the terrorist, on the theory that Adias was hiding in one of them. Monday evening Adias was arrested in his home.