The death of Eric Garner made famous the phrase “I can’t breathe.” The whole world has heard of Eric Garner.
You probably never heard of Shelly Dadon. Or that she was Israeli. Or that her last words were “I can’t breathe.” Or that she was murdered May 1, 2014, stabbed dozens of times by an Israeli Arab cab driver on her way to a job interview. Because she was Jewish.
We featured Shelly several times in June and July 2014, at a time Israel was gripped by the kidnapping and presumed murder of three Israeli teens (Gil-ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel) and the retaliatory murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.
On July 6, 2014, we wrote about her murder, Arab Violence Against Israel and Jews Continues:
This case of an Israeli teenager, Shelly Dadon, on way to job interview who was stabbed to death has received almost no international media attention:
Only July 7, 2014, we followed up, Israeli reaction to murder of teen a sign of Israel’s moral strength:
Israel is undergoing intense soul searching, as a nation, for the actions of what are believed to be 6 Israeli Jews in murdering an Israeli Arab teen, Mohammed Abu Khedair, in retaliation for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens, Gil-ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel….This reaction from Israeli society is not a sign of weakness, but of strength.Where was there a similar Palestinian societal soul searching over the murders of the kidnapped teens? Where was the international hand wringing that Palestinian society has gone morally astray?There will be no such soul searching not just over the murder of the kidnapped Israeli teens, but over the murder of Shelly Dadon (Featured Image).Dadon, an Israeli Jew, was stabbed to death on May 1 on her way to a job interview in northern Israel. Yesterday the police announced the arrest of an Israeli Arab taxi driver in the crime, which the police believe was driven by “nationalistic” motives, i.e., terrorism.Yet there is almost no press coverage. As of this writing, a Google News search does not reveal any major non-Israeli newspaper coverage of the arrest in Dadon’s murder.
During the trial of the accused, the final phone call from Shelly was played, ‘I Can’t Breathe’; Chilling Last Words of Murdered Shelly Dadon
Nazareth District Court this morning heard the chilling last phone call made by Israeli murder victim Shelly Dadon, just moments before she was brutally murdered earlier this year.Relatives of Danon wept as the recording was heard for the first time during the trial of taxi driver Hussein Khalifa, who stands accused of stabbing the 20-year-old to death in the back of his own taxi.The following is the transcript of the brief call made by Dadon to her cousin, Tal Peretz.Dadon: Hello. What’s up? Is everything OK? Where are you?Peretz: I’m just walking – I’ll call you back soon.Dadon: One second, listen…Peretz: When did you leave?Dadon: Ima’le (Hebrew slang, literally “mummy”), what a scary taxi! I left at a quarter to seven. I can’t breathe…At that point noises which sound like someone being choked can be heard, and the call eventually cuts off.
You can imagine how her parents reacted when they heard the tape:
The killer was just sentenced to life in prison, via Times of Israel:
The Nazareth District Court handed a life sentence to taxi driver Yousef Hussein Halifa on Wednesday and fined him NIS 258,000 (about $65,800) over the murder of Afula resident Shelley Dadon last year in a high-profile case.In July 2014, the state’s attorney filed charges against Halifa, 37, after he admitted to driving Dadon, 20, on May 1 of that year to the Migdal Haemek industrial center, where she was headed for a job interview, and later stabbing her to death….Dadon’s murder was deemed by police to have likely been nationalistically motivated. However, the indictment made no mention of motive. Dadon’s parents have insisted that the attack was nationalistically motivated, and called on the police to publicly declare it as such.“[We] expect that the killer’s home will be demolished just like the home of any other terrorist,” Dadon’s father said Wednesday, referring to a controversial practice implemented by Israeli authorities against families of terrorists. “I wish we had the death penalty, as in any other civilized country,” he added, according to the Ynet news website.
How long before Shelly’s murderer is released in a prisoner exchange? Let’s hope never.
Rest in peace, Shelley. Your memory is a blessing.
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