For months, Israel has been transfixed by the tragic tale of 4-year-old Rose Pizem, apparently murdered by her own grandfather and possibly her mother.
While the idea that a small child’s mother and grandfather could be involved in her murder is hard enough to believe, what has made the story even more unbelievable are the facts surrounding it. In short: Rose’s parents divorced after her mother had an affair with her husband’s father, the grandfather murder suspect. The mother and grandfather then had two more children of their own.
But if you think that is all unbelievable, read this next story from Ma’an News.
Palestinian general detectives arrested a woman in Ramallah on charges that she killed three children, including her own daughter, the police information center announced Wednesday.
During questioning, police say the woman admitted to killing her brother’s four-year-old son when her brother travelled abroad in 1997, but he asked that she not tell anyone about it.
Three years later, she allegedly suffocated her own 10-year-old daughter, hiding her body in a bedroom. She reportedly also told the brother about her daughter’s death, and he again urged her to keep it secret.
She apparently killed her infant son in 1994, as well, though she maintains that the six-month-old’s death was accidental. Police plan to investigate that claim, as well.
Police first became involved when an organization called Defense for Children International sent a letter on 14 August to the director general of the Palestinian police, Hazim Atallah, about the case of a minor held on robbery charges at the Dar Al-Amal rehabilitation facility.
The letter said that the 17-year-old had accused his father-in-law of torturing his brothers and mother, according to Muneer Al-Jaghout, a representative at the Police Information Center in Ramallah.
Police grew increasingly concerned when the boy began discussing events surrounding the death of his brother three years earlier. Police then submitted the case to Ramallah Director of Police Yousif ‘Uzreil, who in August agreed to follow up on the boy’s story.
According to a police statement, the suspect claimed she accidentally suffocated her 6-month-old infant as she was breastfeeding him.
Subsequently, the woman and her daughter moved into her family’s home.
It was there, she says, that her brother began demanding sex, which she originally rejected. Eventually, however, she agreed and the two began having an affair. Her brother had two wives, according to the report, because he married his dead brother’s widow.In interrogation, the suspect told police that her brother forced her and his two wives to “practice lesbianism together,” which included having sex and sleeping in the same bed.
The brother’s two wives reportedly corroborated her story. Police later found video evidence of the women’s claims in a search of the brother’s home.
Police then arrested the brother, who owns a coffee shop in Ramallah, on weapons and ammunition charges. Police also seized multiple video cassettes, a camera, CDs and illegal drugs. The man told police that he had been a drug addict for about 15 years.
After reviewing the videos, which contained explicit and incestuous footage of the brother and sister, along with the two wives, police summoned the sister for interrogation.
The police information center did not propose a motive for any of the alleged murders. Its statement did not explain why police failed to investigate that three children were missing for over a decade.
