Otniel stabber’s father: Family was unaware of crime, shouldn’t lose home

Julie Wiener

Abu Adham, left, the father of the Palestinian teen arrested on suspicion of killing Dafna Meir in her home. (Screenshot from Channel 2)

Abu Adham, left, the father of the Palestinian teen arrested on suspicion of killing Dafna Meir in her home. (Screenshot from Channel 2)

(JTA) — The father of the Palestinian teen accused of fatally stabbing an Israeli women in a West Bank settlement said his family’s home should not be demolished because it’s “very possible” that if he’d known of his son’s guilt he would have turned the boy in to Israeli officials.

Abu Adham, whose son Morad Bader Abdullah Adais was arrested Monday night and charged with murdering Dafna Meir in her home in the Otniel settlement near Hebron, asked in an interview on Channel 2 News Tuesday: “Why should I be punished for what the kid did?”

Adham said in the interview, according to The Times of Israel, that his son, who reportedly confessed to murdering the mother of six, had not acted suspiciously.

“He has everything in life … he was happy. He has tons of clothes, food and drink. He has everything,” the father said.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to demolish the family’s home and bar family members from working in Israel.

According to The Times of Israel, Israeli news site Walla reported Tuesday that Adham told Palestinian media he was “proud” of his son for stabbing Meir, but other family members disputed that account, telling Israel’s Channel 2, “No one here is proud of the murder.”

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