Near his family’s settlement, Malachei HaShalom, one of about 150 Israeli settlements in the West Bank that are illegal under international law, Achimeir, 14, had been living and working on a small farm outpost.
Israeli police said the young adolescent was killed that morning outside in the meadow, but it would take a day for his body to be discovered. A large search involving thousands of volunteers from the settler community as well as the Israeli police, military, air force, and intelligence services was launched when the flock of sheep returned to the property without him.
For some, it was insufficient. Elisha Yered, an extremist settler suspected of killing a Palestinian man in August of last year and a former spokesperson for MP Limor Son Har-Melech, wrote on a settlers WhatsApp group at 8:30 on Saturday.
“Shabbat Shalom, it’s been nearly 24 hours of heavy suspicion that Benjamin was kidnapped from the pasture and still the obvious measures have not been taken,” Yered said.
